What I go to school for
by Koby J
Summary: Merthur AU: High school is terribly boring for Arthur until he meets certain raven-haired strange boy who seems to make school just that much more interesting. D: Summaries are not my forte.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys! As promised, here is my version of a high school AU Merlin fic :D It's going to be Merthur and is rated T in case of future chapters (I'll admit I haven't exactly planned this out). Don't hit me if I get too cliché or my writing turns to blah D:  
Sadly I don't own Merlin, trust me, you'd be able to tell if I did ;)  
And now, the story:**

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Merlin ran, he could hear his attackers close behind. Turning around a corner, he amused himself briefly with the fact that he hadn't tripped over anything yet, a feat he could brag to Will about after school, then -snap-, and suddenly he was on the floor. Merlin cursed the rock that had so inconveniently tripped him over and quickly stood up again, ready to run. But it was too late, his attackers closed around him, trapping him in a circle. One of them, most likely the leader, stood forward and laughed.

"You shouldn't have tried to run kid, we just wanted to give you the proper welcome all the scholarship kids get is all."

Merlin was hopeful for a second, maybe they were just going to give him a welcome certificate or something, shake his hand perhaps. Maybe the whole thing had just been a misunderstanding and he had misinterpreted the evil glints and sniggers and the "well well well, looks like we have fresh meat." No such luck, Merlin was hoisted up by two of the attackers, and was promptly being carried over to a nearby dumpster. He groaned, it really was just his luck to already have enemies within the first ten minutes of setting foot in his new school. He had come from Ealdor, a small town outside the city. His mother and him had been struggling to get by, the crops in the past few years had been particularly bad, and so to hopefully relieve his mother from having to pay for his school fees and his food, Merlin had taken a test for a scholarship to Camelot high, a school in the city and close by to his Uncle Gaius who had offered to take him in almost immediately. Merlin had gotten the scholarship easy, the test had been a breeze for him, and though the acceptance was a relief for him, he hadn't particularly wanted to leave his mother and his friends behind just yet. Hunith was extremely proud of her son, making sure the whole town knew about his scholarship. Barely any kids had ever gotten a scholarship into Camelot high, and even few had ever gotten full scholarships as it was considered the hardest school to get into with money and connections. Will had been reluctant to let his friend go, insisting over and over again that there was no reason for him to leave since he only had two years of school left. Finally Will had settled for a signed contract, stating that Merlin had to call at least twice a week, email every day and visit once per month. To be absolutely honest, he hadn't been looking forward to his first day of school as he knew everybody would no doubt be rich save for a couple of scholarship kids, and it would be terribly hard to fit in. Still being the optimistic person he was, Merlin strode into school early, thinking of his mother the whole walk to school, and asked the nearest group of kids whether or not they knew where the office was. It had been going fine, none of them had taken too much notice of him until they looked at his clothes. Wrinkling their noses, they asked where he was from. Smiling, Merlin had introduced himself, telling them that he was the new scholarship student. And then everything went downhill, and that's when Merlin decided to run.

They were getting closer to the dumpster, Merlin could hear sniggers on both sides of him. Waiting for the right moment, Merlin sucked in a breath, then when he was close enough, he kicked out hard at the dumpster. Surprised, and being pushed back by the force, the two holders lost their grip and Merlin sprang out of their grasp, doing a sort of a flip before landing and stumbling momentarily. Then without wasting any more time, he ran, looking for a place to hide.

**-----**

Arthur sat on a particularly fat branch, hidden quite well amongst the leaves, listening for the tell-tale sound of the bell. He was going to skip school again, he really just didn't see the point in going anymore. He had gotten everything that he possibly could out of school already, and for the first time, life had started to become relatively boring. He was head boy, and no doubt the most popular boy in school. His father was Uther Pendragon, and conveniently the richest most influential man in Camelot, and because of that, the kids at school were all on strict orders to not ever get in the younger Pendragon's way. He had the normal cliché bunch of popular fake friends, his only true friend was Morgana, but she was his sister and there for, in Arthur's logic, did not count. The tree had recently upon discovery become his favourite place to hide out when he occasionally could not take school anymore. Fiddling with his shirt and waiting for the moment when he could finally leave without having the teachers guarding the gate catch him, Arthur was surprised to hear a large rustling at the trunk of the tree. Climbing across to the trunk, Arthur peered down only to come face to face with a frantic looking boy with raven black hair.  
"Climb up, climb up!" he screamed, and for some reason Arthur scrabbled back up, pulling the gangly boy up with him. Upon sitting safely on the branch again, Arthur stared at the strange boy who was now slumped against the trunk, panting and trying desperately to regain his breath. Arthur couldn't quite place who the boy was, concluding in the end that he was definitely new, there was no way he could have seen those blue eyes and forgotten them. The boy had a refreshing look about him, his pale ivory skin, raven black hair and blue eyes contrasting quite nicely together. Finally realising what had just happened and slightly embarrassed to realise that he was looking, Arthur caught the attention of the boy.

"_What_, the_ hell?"_

Looking up, the boy moved across the branch towards Arthur.

"Right. I'm Merlin, nice to meet you."

Smiling a wonderfully goofy grin, the boy wiped his palms on his jeans before reaching out to shake Arthurs hand. Raising an eyebrow, Arthur hesitantly took the other boys hand,

"Arthur... by the way, what may I ask are you doing?"

Merlin cocked his head to the side and with a look that seemed to suggest that it was rather obvious Merlin replied with a simple "Hiding." He then proceeded to poke his head over the branch, peering down to ground. Curious as to what exactly Merlin was hiding from, Arthur siddled up next him, looking down towards the ground. There was nothing he could see that could possibly have been a danger, really, all there was down there was Mordred and his gang of friends. Confused, Arthur wondered why on Earth Merlin would have to hide from them unless... oh.

"Merlin, are you by any chance a scholarship student?"

Merlin glanced up momentarily at Arthur.

"Hmm. If I say yes are you going to try throw me in the dumpster as well?"

Arthur twitched slightly before saying a slow "no". To be honest, if it had been any other circumstance and just another regular scholarship kid, then he would have probably dragged the kid into the dumpster by now. Not that he had anything against the scholarship kids, really, that's just how the school hierarchy worked. Scholarship kids were at the bottom and were generally mistreated in their first week before being ignored for the rest of their school life, effectively making them outcasts, and as one of the popular kids, it was expected of Arthur to comply with this rule. But Merlin was different, there was just something about him that separated him from everyone else, he just couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

Merlin grinned, peering up at Arthur while still half looking at Mordred and his gang, "then yes, yes I am. Merlin Emrys, scholarship student."

Then before Arthur could say anything else, a small branch broke off the tree, dropping down to the ground and revealing their hiding place. The group of boys looked up, Merlin immediately pulled back, then cursing he jumped up and swung himself to onto the branch above them, seemingly moving quite swiftly and impressively from Arthurs point of view.

The gang climbed up the tree, struggling at first but eventually getting the hang of it, they moved towards the branch in which they swore their victim was hiding. "You're going to pay you little freak." Sneered Mordred upon getting to the branch. But instead of the scholarship kid he had been chasing, he saw Arthur instead, arms crossed and clearly not amused. Sneers disappearing and replaced with uneasy smiles, the group of boys tried to hide their surprise and fear.

"Oh, hi Arthur. Sorry, thought you were someone else, we didn't mean you when we said..."

Mordred trailed off as Arthurs glare intensified,

"Well clearly there's no one else here so if you don't mind, leave."

"Yessir." They mumbled as they struggled to get down the tree as quickly as possible.

Looking up, Arthur tried to spot Merlin but instead was met with a messy array of leaves. Squinting to try get a better view, Arthur was surprised yet again by Merlin who popped out of no where, hanging upside down, feet wrapped around the branch up above and face directly facing Arthurs.

Arthur looked in awe at the dangling boy,

"Wow, how are you doing that?"

Merlin smirked before replying, "I'm Spiderman of course, don't you remember that scene from the movie? If you want you can be Mary Jane."

Blushing slightly, Arthur turned around and scoffed.

"I'm head boy, do you seriously want to be asking me that?"

"Ooooh, scary!" replied Merlin, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Are you always such an idiot?"

Merlin responded with an equally quick-tongued "Are you always such a prat?"

"Well, _Mer_lin, considering I just saved you from an ass kicking, no, I wouldn't say I'm always such a prat."

Merlin disappeared back up into the leaves before jumping down next to Arthur with a sheepish grin.

"Thanks for that by the way. And to answer your question before, I have a friend back home who used to teach me all these tricks. He'd get us into so much trouble its hard not to develop certain skills to stay alive," chuckled Merlin.

Snapping off a small branch, Merlin tapped each of Arthurs shoulders and then his head.

"I dub thee Sir Arthur sometimes-a-prat-but-apparently-not-always. I owe you a chocolate." Merlin grinned as he stuck out his tongue slightly.

Arthur rolled his eyes and suppressed a small smile, Merlin was seriously unlike anyone he'd ever met before. Upon hearing the bell ring, Merlin's eyes widened and he pulled out his printed out time-table from his bag. There was no longer any time left to sign in at the office, he'd just have to go straight to class.

"Any chance you could tell me how to get to lab four?"

As so it happened, that was Arthurs first class as well. Perhaps he would end up going to class after all, there was just something about Merlin that seemed to make school suddenly more refreshing and interesting.

"Well, actually, that's my first class as well. "

Merlin smiled cheekily before moving towards the trunk of the tree,

"Brilliant. Come on then, let's go!"

Arthur smiled, Merlins idiotic smiles were strangely contagious, and then after pausing for a beat, Arthur hurried down after the raven haired boy.

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**  
Blah, hope you all enjoyed that :)  
Reviews or comments?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yay for chapter 2 and reviews :D! This chapter is a little messy and a little sloppy though :l I promise the next chapter will be better and written when I'm not half asleep!**

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Arthur walked into class, a new air of interest surrounding him. The students of the class looked over hesitantly at the blonde boy, wondering what had changed the mind of the most popular boy and compelled him to attend the one class he rarely ever showed up for, let alone on time. It confused the class even more as Arthur chose an empty desk near the front of the room to sit at, apparently not hearing the various seat offers shouted at him halfway across the class. Almost immediately after Arthur had sat down, and before anyone of the excited less popular kids could walk over and attempt to make conversation with him and gain instant popularity credit, Dr. Monmouth entered the room, effectively stopping all talking or at least lowering it to small whispers and murmurs. Greeting the class with a curt nod, the science teacher proceeded to hand out various sheets on plant systems to the less than enthusiastic students. They may be respectful but they made it clear that they did not want to learn. With a sigh, he then drew out a marker, writing slowly the date and the name of the topic on the board, knowing very well that the students would have preferred if he just spent the whole lessen going over the small tedious numbers rather than teaching about plant systems.

"Alright class, today we're going to be looking at the plant system again."

A small chorus of groans erupted from the back of the classroom.

"I would like you all to get into groups of two and study together for this lesson. Be aware that there will be a test concerning this topic in the next lesson."

The kids murmured excitedly, looking around and trying to snag their friends or one of the more popular kids before anyone else did. After all, whenever Dr. Monmouth ever said something along the lines of "study in groups of two," the class only heard it as "take this time to socialise with your friends." Arthur looked down at his empty notebook, hoping that no one would approach him. Of course that would never happen, for Christ sake he was the number one target in the room. Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur saw members of the class make their way toward him, only to be stopped half-way by another member who wanted the position of "Arthur's partner". With horror, Arthur noticed Nim bee-lining her way towards him, not needing to push the other people out of the way as they automatically moved to the side as she was considered second most popular in the room. Before he could contemplate a clever means of escape from the room, the door burst open, drawing the attention of everyone as a gangly raven-haired boy ran into the room, tripping over his feet and falling in front of a very stunned Dr. Monmouth's desk. Arthur let out a small grin as he watched Merlin stand up, obviously embarrassed and trying very hard not to notice the giggling coming from the class.

Arthur had been heading to class with Merlin when the slightly out of breath scholarship student realised that he had to head to the office anyway since they had his books needed in his lessons. Arthur had pointed the way to the office, offering to come with but only to have Merlin push him towards class, exclaiming that he didn't want Arthur to get in trouble for being late. Arthur didn't have any time to explain that being late would most definitely not get him in trouble before Merlin ran off, trying his best to avoid the rest of the student body who was moving in the opposite direction.

Arthur looked around and saw the class attack Merlin with various looks of curiosity. He even heard a few of the girls giggle, whispering things to each other such as "he's cute," and "i wonder who his father is." Merlin met Arthurs eyes and smiled before turning around and handing the teacher a note from the office. Clearing his throat, the Doctor stood up,

"This is Merlin Emrys, a new student from Ealdor. He is a scholarship student and I expect you all to treat him with respect."

Dr. Monmouth twitched as he watched the curious and even friendly looks turn to glares and looks of disgust. Looking at the new boy, he watched him frown, as if not understanding, then changing to a look of indifference.

"Now Merlin, we are studying plant systems, a topic continued on from last year, so I don't expect you to catch on that quickly. Today we're doing self study or rather studying in groups of two. Go find yourself a partner and start reading as in the next lesson we are to have a test."

Dr. Monmouth spoke the last part with sympathy, knowing very well how the school liked to treat their scholarship students. He highly doubted the new boy would find himself a partner, let alone be allowed to sit next to someone.

Merlin looked around the class, surveying the students of the class before walking over to Arthur with a grin on his face.

"Can I be your partner?"

Behind Merlin, Arthur saw the glares intensify, hearing a few scoffs and sniggers as if they could not believe Merlin had even bothered asking. Without hesitating, Arthur moved his expensive canvas school bag off the seat next to him, smiling before replying with a nod. Arthur watched with amusement as he saw the jaws of the whole class, including Dr. Monmouth, drop. Nim cursed as she stamped her foot, she had wasted too much time in trying to ask Arthur to be her partner and most likely she would now have to be paired with a less popular kid. Merlin who seemed to see Nim throw her mini tantrum and then glare with utter intensification at him, raised an eyebrow at Arthur,

"Bet you're glad I saved you from that one."

Arthur laughed, drawing the attention of half the class, before replying with a small head shake of disbelief and then placing the various sheets on their table on the ground next to him.

"You have no idea."

Merlin furrowed his brow then picked the sheets up back off the floor, flipping through them to see what sorts of information they offered.

"Why'd you put them on the ground? I thought we were meant to be studying."

Arthur rolled his eyes and smirked,

"Look around, no ones actually looking at those sheets."

"But don't they need to study for the test?"

Arthur rolled his eyes again

"No, you idiot, either way we'll all get an A or B for science anyway. I mean, my notebook was friggin empty last year and I still got an 'A' because all the teachers are scared of my father."

This may have been true for Arthur but unknown to him, about half the class still had to work for their grades. Only the most popular, which also meant the most powerful, had the ability to sit back and cruise while their parents scared their good grades out of the teachers. The others had to cram study for tests as studying or concentrating in class had been deemed "uncool" by the popular kids.

"You are such a prat. You know you really shouldn't let your parents just fix everything for you."

"Just father. My mother died giving birth to me." Replied Arthur absent mindedly, more focusing on the fact that for once in his life, someone other than his father or Morgana had just told him off.

There was an awkward pause before Merlin replied with "Oh.. sorry, I didn't know... anyway, if you want, I can help you study right now."

Arthur sighed before nodding, he had a feeling Merlin would not take no for an answer, and also he kind of wanted impress the boy for a reason he didn't quite know.

Merlin grinned his wonderfully idiotic grin and then started to test Arthur without even looking at the sheets next to him.

"Alright Arthur, explain to me what a palisade cell is."

Arthur looked dumbly at Merlin before scoffing,

"What are you on about? We're learning about plants."

Merlin raised an eyebrow before continuing.

"Let's start with something easier then, can you tell me the word equation for photosynthesis?"

Arthur donned a looked of confusion.

"Photo...?"

Merlin groaned before launching into a full lecture about plants for the rest of the lesson. Dr. Monmouth watched with interest as he listened in on the conversation. The new boy Merlin, Dr. Monmouth made a note to remember his name, was reciting information that clearly showed that he had deserved that full scholarship. What amazed him even more though, was the fact that Arthur _bloody_ Pendragon was actually listening. Was actually looking and listening and responding to the boy as if he was actually interested. Arthur Pendragon, the boy that _never_ listened in science, who rarely even turned up to lessons was now talking animatedly with a _scholarship_ student about _science_, as if they were actually _friends_.

The bell rang and Merlin quickly gathered up his things, explaining to Arthur that he needed to get to his next class early to introduce himself to the teacher. Arthur gathered up his things more slowly, slightly depressed upon realising that he was not in Merlins next class. As Dr. Monmouth picked up the scrunched up, doodled upon worksheets off the tables, Arthur approached him with the notes neatly folded in his hands.

"Dr. Monmouth, do you mind if I take these home with me?"

The teacher stared at Arthur, not really believing he heard the right words.

"You want to take these... home..?

Arthur grinned before nodding, eyes distant and looking towards the door.

"I want to be able to understand what the idiot's talking about the next time he decides to talk to me as if he's reading from a freaking text book in his mind."

Dr. Monmouth raised his eyebrows before muttering an "Of course," realising that 'idiot' probably referred to Merlin.

Arthur sat through his next two classes in a daze. He talked absent mindedly to Lance in Geography and laughed, without much meaning, right on cue with everyone else at another one of Sophia's attempt at a joke. All in all, he seemed pretty much himself to the rest of the school, only his mind was changed. Where he was usually thinking about getting out of school or football, he instead found his mind constantly wandering towards Merlin. Arthur tried to convince himself that it was probably because he was so different, so real compared to the rest of the fake people around him and not because he had the most wonderful blue eyes and the most delightful, contagious, idiotic smile. The bell for the start of lunch rang, Lance, Kay and Arthur were the first three to rush out of the room.

"Hey, you coming Arthur?" asked Kay as Arthur stood hesitantly in the corridor.

"You guys go first, i'll come in a sec." Replied Arthur who just wanted to see if Merlin had made it alive out of class.

Kay shrugged and he and Lance walked off to the cafeteria, Nim and Sophia joining them halfway and flinging themselves on the two boys. Meanwhile, Arthur walked by music classroom in which he knew Merlin had his third period class in. With no avail, Arthur walked through the east wing corridor, hoping to spot the mop of tell-tale raven hair making it's way towards the cafeteria. Again with no luck, Arthur turned around disappointed and contemplated whether he'd catch up with Lance and Kay if he ran. Taking a short-cut, Arthur walked briskly down the stairs and into the western corridors, only to see Merlin. Arthur grinned at first, only seeing Merlin before realising that the boy was being pushed up against the lockers, a group of boys surrounding him.

**---**

Merlin cringed as his head was slammed again on to the cold hard metal of the locker doors.

"Thought you could get away did you?" sneered Mordred, clearly annoyed that Merlin had managed to evade their attack in the morning.

Merlin stayed silent, lips drawn in a thin line.

"Well..? Answer me!"

Mordred growled as Merlin stayed silent. He wanted to hear him beg, to hear his voice choked with fear like all the other kids he had "taught a lesson too." Merlin kept his mouth closed. He had contemplated briefly an escape route, nothing but a few jumps and well placed footing would have been necessary but he had scrapped the idea upon realising that the more he evaded the "scholarship initiation", the angrier Mordred and his group of followers would get. So deciding that taking the beating would be the only way to go, besides, he wouldn't be able to avoid Mordred and his gang forever.

Angered, Mordred stepped back, about to spit on the victim when Merlin, out of reflex, side-stepped and pulled one of the sneering bullies into his place. Upon hearing the yelp of the un-suspecting boy and the frantic hands movements as he tried to wipe off the spit on his face, Merlin winced and knew almost immediately that that had not been a good move. Shaking with anger, the boy Merlin had pulled rolled up his sleeves and was about to beat the living daylights out of Merlin who had his eyes squeezed shut, waiting for impact, when he felt a hand grab him by the back of his neck, pulling him back. The boy whirled around, about to yell at who ever had stopped him but lost his arrogance when he bumped into the chest of a certain blonde haired boy.

"Arthur.. uhmm.." The boy was lost for words, not sure exactly what he was meant to say.

"What on Earth is going on here?" barked Arthur, clearly not impressed.

"Just in time Arthur. We were about to show Merlin here what being a scholarship student at Camelot High is like." Said Mordred breezily, obviously waiting for praise of some kind.

Instead, Arthur used the tone of authority he had since birth possessed.

"Go eat lunch Mordred, you're done here. " Then grabbing Merlin lightly on the shoulders, Arthur half dragged him away. Shrugging, the group of boys left, slightly confused and all drawing the conclusion that Arthur wanted to finish of Merlin himself.

**---**

Opening his mouth, Merlin immediately closed it again as he got a don't-you-dare-even-speak-or-horrible-consequences-will-follow look from Arthur. Once safely out of the corridor and into another hall-way of the school leading to the cafeteria, Arthur turned to Merlin and sighed,

"Why is it that every time I have to save your idiotic arse from being kicked?"

Merlin pouted, much to Arthurs amusement.

"Gee, well I would say thanks but I'm afraid that your prattish-ness might increase and that you'd explode from the sheer size of it."

Arthur laughed and the two of them exchanged amusing playful insults until they got to the cafeteria. Spotting his group of friends which basically consisted of the most popular students, Arthur began to walk towards them when he noticed that Merlin was not following.

"Any particular reason you're just standing there like a mentally deficient child?"

Merlin shifted uncomfortably before responding with a small smile,

"I'm not quite sure I'd fit in with your friends."

Arthur frowned before realising this was very true. If Merlin rocked up to their table, he'd find himself in the dumpster in three seconds flat. Looking around, Arthur spotted a solution. Motioning for Merlin to follow, Arthur walked towards a table in which to girls sat alone, talking to each other in a way that showed that they were best friends.

**---**

Arthur strolled up behind Morgana, pulling her hair before Gwen could give any warning. Turning around, ready to strangle Arthur, Morgana noticed a friendly looking boy with a brilliant smile standing behind her brother.

Upon seeing Morgana and Gwen, Arthur knew that Merlin would fit in fine with them. Morgana, because of both her looks and charm and because her father was Uther Pendragon, was considered one of the most popular kids in school regardless of her attitude towards popularity. Morgana being Morgana, refused to be friends with anyone in the school besides Gwen, insisting that they were all fake. Arthur of course felt the same way but didn't really care. After all, that was just how school worked. Gwen, Arthur was sure, would be able to relate to Merlin the most, being a half-scholarship student.

"Who's this?" asked Morgana, unable to keep the curiosity from her voice. Merlin replied before Arthur could respond, sticking out his hand and donning his trade-mark goofy grin,

"I'm Merlin Emrys, nice to meet you."

Morgana shook his hand while raising her eyebrows at Arthur, obviously wondering what was going on.  
Taking the hint, Arthur motioned to Merlin,

"He's the new full scholarship student, aside from that he's also a bit of an idiot."

Merlin poked his tongue out at Arthur, "am not." Arthur responded with a childish "are too."

Morgana shook her head in disbelief as Gwen giggled.

"Did you two want to sit down?"

Merlin flashed the two girls a grin before sitting down opposite Gwen. Arthur hesitated, knowing that he should be sitting with his group otherwise he would cause an uproar in the school system. Arthur looked across at Merlin who was now in an animated discussion with Gwen about the importance of calculus. Smirking, Arthur sat down next to the boy, opposite Morgana, using the excuse of saving Morgana from boredom and extreme nerd talk to sit down and break the rule just once.

As the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, the group ended their discussion of the best and worst teachers of the school. Packing up their things, Morgana suddenly clapped her hands in excitement as if she had just thought of the most amazing thing.

"Hey, you know what, you should come by after school Merlin. Gwen always comes on Mondays to tutor me but she never has time to help Arthur out and god knows he needs some sort of academic guidance."

Arthur glared at Morgana but was secretly delighted at her suggestion, wanting to spend more time with the mysterious raven-haired boy. Merlin grinned and nodded, then turning to Arthur he asked "Are you fine with that?" Shrugging and with a failed look of indifference as there was a small smile on his face, Arthur replied with a "Yeh, couldn't hurt." So it was settled, Merlin would be coming over to his house.

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**Fail ending line much?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter three :D Thanks for the reviews so far guys, they've made me super happy! _Oh, and one important important thing: Everyone is about the age of 17_, Arthur being older than Merlin by a few months or something. I know before I said that Merlin had two more years of school left, ignore that, they're both 17 (: That may be important a few chapters later.  
Anyway, enjoy:**

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Arthur watched the minutes tick by. Four minutes. Four minutes till the end of school, four minutes till Mr. Hurt would stop attempting to explain algebra. Four minutes till Merlin. Arthur quickly reeled back from his slumped position over his desk, then slumped back down upon realising half the class had just turned towards him. Had he really just thought "four minutes till Merlin"? He frowned and started to pack his bag in discretion, never mind that Mr. Hurt was still droning on in the front of the classroom. "There's something about you Merlin, I just can't put my finger on it," Muttered Arthur, thinking back to the strange boy dangling upside down on a branch, idiotic smile on his face. The bell rang right on cue as Arthur zipped up his bag. He walked slowly out of the room, contemplating on whether or not he could fit in a quick visit to the bathroom to see if he looked decent. Stopping, Arthur screwed up his face and shook his head, did he seriously just consider tidying up his appearance like some love-sick girl waiting for a date? A little voice in Arthurs head whispered in the background, "Merlin is coming over to YOUR house, it could be considered a date." Blushing at the mere thought of going on a date with his newly founded not-quite-just-yet friend, though not sure just why he was going red, Arthur decided to stop by the bathroom, just to use the toilet of course, definitely not to fix his hair or anything, but of course if the opportunity came up and the mirrors were free..

"Aaaaarthurrrr!" screamed a voice in which they hoped was in a seductive way.

Arthur looked towards the cause of the noise, only to quickly avert his eyes again. Pretending that he did not see who had called his name, he rushed quickly away to the front of the school. Damn, thought Arthur, no time for going to the bathroom anymore. Confused as she was almost certain Arthur had seen her, Nim pushed her way towards the almost running Arthur.

"Arthur!" she called out again, desperate to get the attention of the head boy.

Arthur frantically dodged past the student body, taking sharp turns, hoping to lose the girl trailing after him. What he found weird was that he was actually running way from Nim. Usually he didn't mind her flirting, occasionally he'd even return it just for the heck of it, but today he really just really couldn't be bothered with her, for some reason she was just plain annoying now. Bursting out the school gates, Arthur frantically looked for his and Morgana's car. Finally, Arthur saw it, engine on and revving in the carpark. Morgana sat in the drivers seat and Gwen in shotgun. Merlin sat a little timidly in the back, half nibbling on a chocolate bar and half responding to the questions Morgana was firing at him.

"AAARRRRTTTTHUUUURRR!!!!!!"

Arthur ran at full speed towards the car, Nim's tone of voice having changed from attempted seductiveness to crazy. Jumping into the convertible and scaring the hell out of the three other people in the car, Arthur half hissed half shouted to Morgana, "DRIVE, DRIVE, DRIVE!" As the car sped off, both Merlin and Arthur peered back only to see a peeved off Nim scream out in frustration as she made her way back into the school, kicking a decorative pot of flowers over on her way. Shaking his head, Merlin turned back to his chocolate bar.

"I swear she survives solely to feast on the souls of kittens and to appear in the nightmares of small, innocent children." He muttered.

Upon hearing this, the whole car shook with laughter, Arthur managed to stop himself, though a small smile remained on his lips.

"Hey, Nims not that bad," spoke Arthur. After all, she was sort of his friend. Well, not really, she was just one of those I'm-popular-and-so-are-you-so-we-must-be-friends friends. Still, she had some good qualities. Arthur pondered on this fact. Nim had the personality range the size of a fingernail and the humor of a dead person, however he had to admit she had the biggest rack at school, despite their obvious fakeness, and also her family was well connected, her mother being the personal stylist for numerous celebrities.

Merlin turned to Arthur and raised an eyebrow.  
"In geography she answered the capital of California as 'C' and when nobody corrected her, I did, which turned out to be a mistake because she proceeded to scream in face in an incomprehensible language consisting of only profanity and expressions of anger."

Arthur's brief feeling of being impressed by the boys use of what he thought were "big words" was ruined when Merlin continued on with a pout,

"And she snapped my favourite pencil as well. The one with the fish on it. I mean, do you know how hard it is to find a pencil with fish on it?"

Arthur managed to suppress a chuckle. Merlin was a mix of both ridiculously smart and ridiculously goofy.

"It's true," nodded Gwen sympathetically from the front, "I was there, it was pretty terrifying."

For some reason, Nim's behaviour didn't really surprise Arthur as much he realised it should have. Really, she was definition of bitch to anyone who wasn't popular.

Arthur frowned slightly as he mumbled, "You really shouldn't get in the way of Nim."

As much as he secretly applauded Merlin for his actions, he also didn't want the boy to get hurt.

**---**

Upon arriving at the Pendragon's family house, which wasn't so much a house but a mansion, Morgana and Gwen had straight away headed off to Morgana's room, leaving Arthur and Merlin to walk a little awkwardly to Arthur's room.

They were currently about twenty minutes into doing their homework, a place Merlin thought would be a good place to start. Arthur looked up at Merlin, who somehow had ended up on his bed lying stomach-down where as Arthur was lying on the ground. Finding his math homework a little tedious and awkward to do as he normally would not even consider touching it, Arthur found his eyes wondering over to the raven-haired boy on his bed, brow occasionally furrowed and a lollipop produced from the depths of his bag in his mouth as he moved through his homework at an amazing speed. Arthur couldn't help notice the way the light danced in the boys hair and along his body, making him seem almost magical. The sun, he noticed, occasionally turned the boy's eyes almost a golden colour. Staring at Merlin, Arthur found his thoughts floating to the fact Merlin was actually lying in his _bed_. Arthur however, chased these thoughts away before they developed into anything too inappropriate. As if sensing that he was being stared at, Merlin looked up at Arthur, smiling before looking back down and going back to his work. Moving on to science, Merlin set on reading a long passage, occasionally taking out his lollipop and running his tongue around the sides. Arthur thought of Merlin doing the same motion on something else. Then blushing furiously, becoming confused as to why on Earth that would pop into his mind in the first place, growing very hot and chasing that particular thought away with much speed, Arthur decided to return to his math homework.

About ten minutes later, Merlin rolled off the bed and over to Arthur, peering over his shoulder at the maths homework he was still attempting to do. Arthur grew a little embarrassed at the closeness of their faces, twitching when Merlin opened his mouth, breath hot and smelling pleasantly of lollies.

" Questions one, three, four and five are wrong."

Instead of being dumbfounded at having gotten four out of five wrong, Arthur perked up at the fact that he had managed to get at least one right.

"So question two is right?"

Merlin frowned before replying,

"No, I just thought it'd be better if I left it out instead of telling you that you got everything wrong."

Arthur sighed, "Really, this is pointless. I'm not going to know how to figure these stupid questions out."

Merlin frowned again, scanning through the questions in Arthurs book.

"Arthur, this isn't too hard to learn, it's simple algebra."

Then plopping down next to Arthur, blonde and raven coloured hair contrasting, Merlin wrote with what seemed like complete ease full explanations of how to do each question in the matter of minutes. Twenty minutes later and a whole lot of explaining from Merlins side, Arthur could do basic Algebra.

".. and so x equals twenty-four?"

Merlin clapped his hands excitedly, the same goofy grin his face. At this, Arthur puffed his chest out proudly, happy from both that fact that he had mastered simple algebra and the fact that Merlin was proud of him. Then glancing at the clock on Arthurs bed side table, Merlin brandished an even larger grin. Merlin, who was now sitting crossed legged, leaned forward towards Arthur so their faces were almost touching, his eyes wide with an almost wild look in them.

"Do you know what time it is?" he whispered, voice full of excitement.

Arthur's mouth went dry, he had no idea why. Barely, he managed to choke out a small "4 o'clock,"

"No," started Merlin slowly and quietly, "IT'S LOLLY TIME!" he screamed, finishing with a large toothy grin before standing up abruptly and rushing over to his bag. Arthur stared at the now gummy bear eating boy as if he was the weirdest thing he had ever seen.

"What in the world is lolly time?"

Merlin swallowed his current gummy bear, replying before reaching for his next victim.

"Four in the afternoon. My mum only lets me eat lollies after school at four and after dinner at eight."

Arthur had to keep reminding himself that the increasing child-like boy in front of him was actually a genius.

"You know, I recall you eating both a full chocolate bar and a lollipop before four."

Merlin grinned sheepishly before reaching for his bag again.

"I thought since it was my first day at school that it didn't count." Then chucking a bar of chocolate at Arthur, Merlin popped another gummy bear in his mouth, "And that's for this morning."

Arthur stared at the bar in his hands and his stomach rumbled. He was hungry, no doubt as he usually ate after school. After stomaching the chocolate, Arthur found that he was still hungry.

"Are you still hungry?" He asked the content looking boy who was now chewing his last gummy bear slowly, an attempt to savour the taste.

"Do you have more lollies?" piped Merlin.

Arthur rolled his eyes, "No, we're getting proper food."

Merlin had been about to argue that lollies were in fact proper food but was instead dragged by Arthur towards the kitchen of the house. Walking along the rooms, Merlin had time to take in account the proper size of the Pendragon estate. He had figured out quite quickly in school that Arthur was one of the, if not the most, popular kids in school, which also meant, he found out, that Arthur was one of the richest as well. However, Merlin was unfazed by the size of Arthur's house, or by the fact that the little house in which he and his uncle Gaius lived in pretty much fit in the mansions living room. Though once in a while wished he had better looking clothes or a slightly less shabby backpack, overall he was quite content with his life.

In the kitchen, Arthur grumbled at the absence of their house cook. He had forgotten that she had her break now and that meant no food for his unsatisfied stomach.

"Sorry, can't eat just yet, forgot the cook has her break right now."

Merlin frowned as if Arthur had missed an obvious solution.

"Can't we get food ourselves?"

Arthur hesitated, to be honest he had never once set into the kitchen unless it were to eat or to request food.

"Can you cook?"

Merlin frowned again and then poked out his tongue.

"No, but I make a really good peanut butter and jelly sandwich."

Arthur wrinkled his nose, "sounds gross."

Merlin raised his eyebrows, "You're kidding right? It almost sounds as if you've never had one before."

Arthur stared blankly at Merlin

"You can not be serious."

Arthur continued to stare blankly at Merlin.

A look of horror appeared on Merlins face, his mouth turning into a terrified 'O',  
"This is the epitome of depressing. I'm making you one right now."

After rummaging through cupboards to find the necessary ingredients, Merlin cut the sandwich diagonally in half.

"Why'd you cut it?" asked Arthur, unused to having to share his food.

Merlin rolled his eyes and looked at Arthur as if it was obvious.

"For starters, you prat, I'm taking half, and also, don't you know sandwiches always taste better when cut into two triangles?" Then shoving the other half into Arthur hands, Merlin took a bite into his own half.

Arthur looked at the half sandwich in his hand, not really wanting to take a bite on account that the purple and brown mixed together did definitely not look appetising. He had been about to set his half back down on his plate when Merlin gave him a stern look,

"Eat it."

Cringing, Arthur took a small bite of his sandwich. Then a bigger one, then another bite and then in the matter of seconds he wolfed it down.

"Oh dear god."

Arthur's mouth was twitching from the pure pleasure of having eaten the blessed sandwich.

"Uh-uh," nodded Merlin knowingly, "Will had the same reaction when I made him his first PBJ sandwich."

Before Arthur could ask who Will was, Merlin shoved another quickly made peanut butter and jelly sandwich in Arthurs hands, and without complaining this time, Arthur ate it more slowly, attempting to savour it like Merlin had earlier with his gummy bears. Three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches later, the two boys found themselves in the garden, sitting next to each other and moving back and forth quite happily on the swings. Arthur chuckled as he heard Merlin beside him squealing with laughter, trying harder each swing to get himself higher. The swings themselves were new, well not really, they were about eleven years old but had actually only been used once. Arthur had demanded, as a child that he receive new "big boy" swings and not "baby" ones. As a result, he found himself constantly sliding off and finding it increasingly uncomfortable in his first go of the swing, and because of that, the swings had remained untouched and then finally forgotten.

"Come on Arthur, go higher!" screamed Merlin  
Arthur, who was swinging at about half the height of Merlin and quite content replied lazily, "Seriously couldn't be stuffed. Not everyone can enjoy going on the swings as much as the idiot you are."

Apparently ignoring the last part of Arthurs comment, Merlin continued on with enjoying the swings with the same amount of enthusiasm

"Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great –" Merlin's screaming of the quote was cut off by Arthur who continued it by instinct.

"- some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them, Act two scene five, Twelfth night."

Merlin clapped and was now looking at Arthur with excitement.

"You know Shakespeare?"

Arthur smirked, Shakespeare and English in general was one of the subjects he was actually good at.

"You could say that."

Then before he could say anything else, Merlin shot him an increasingly familiar goofy grin,

"Arthur Pendragon!"

Then as Arthur turned, he saw Merlin jump off the swing at the highest point, doing a forward flip upon landing. Impressed by the landing, Arthur had been about to ask him how he did it when he was interrupted by the boy yet again.

"I challenge you to a Shakespeare duel!" screamed Merlin, stretching out and pointing to the blonde haired boy for dramatic effect. And that was how the two ended up spending an hour reciting Shakespeare quotes to each other. Finally deciding together that it was a tie, the boys walked back into the house as it was getting dark.

"I better go back now."

Arthur nodded, slightly reluctant to let his new friend go, but he also knew that it was getting pretty late, Gwen having left quite a while ago. The two walked slowly to the front of the house.

"So, how is it that the boy who had no idea what photosynthesis was, is a master of Shakespeare?"

Arthur paused, an idea clicking in his head. Pulling Merlin by the arm, he turned back around and headed towards a large door.

"Arthur, what are you doing? You do realize I have to go home."

Arthur rolled his eyes, "I know that you idiot, I just wanted to show you this first."

Arthur pushed open the door and walked inside, Merlin followed through after, jaw dropping. In front of him was a large library of books, enough that it could have outmatched the number of books in a public library. Twitching with excitement, Merlin ran blindly towards the first shelf of books, running his hand along the spines and pulling out one in the middle, flipping through the pages and then reluctantly putting it back in place. Arthur watched with amusement as he saw Merlin have a mini spasm.

"I read a lot, that's probably why. So, how do you like my library?"

Merlin turned around, the most breath-taking look on his face.

"It's wonderful." He whispered, as if not believing it was real.

Arthur, taken back by the intensity of Merlin's gaze, quickly looked away as his heart started to quicken.

"If you want, you can borrow a book."

Arthur watched as the biggest smile appeared on Merlin as he spun around quickly, scanning through the titles of the books. Finally, he settled on 'Great expectations', one of the few Dickens books he had not read yet. In Ealdor, it was increasingly hard to come by good books. His only source of proper literature and reading material had been his English teacher who owned the entire collection of Shakespeare and a few classic books in which Merlin had exclusively been lent and read multiple times.

Clutching the book to his chest, Merlin walked up to Arthur. "Thank you so much, you don't know how much this means to me."

Arthur, whose heart quickened yet again at the approach of the raven-haired boy, nodded and with effort, managed to choke out the words "It's fine, see you tomorrow." And with an enthusiastic goodbye, Merlin left Arthur standing alone in the library, heart still beating fast.  
"What the hell is this.." he muttered, sitting down and trying to calm himself.

**---**

"Merlin, why the _devil_ are you so late? Do you have any idea how _worried_ I was?"

Merlin grinned sheepishly, "Sorry Gaius. I went to Arthur's house and I sort of forgot the time."

Gaius stumbled back a little, eyebrows raised to the ceiling. "Sorry, I just thought I heard you say you went to Arthur's house."

Merlin frowned, "I did."

"Arthur _Pendragon_?"

Merlin nodded slowly, not sure why his uncle was so shocked.

"And that book..?" Gaius motioned to the book Merlin was still clutching.

"Arthurs. Did you know he has the most wonderful library?"

Merlin went on rambling and Gaius, having previously taught at Camelot High and well in the know about how the poorer students were treated, pondered over the near impossibility of his ward, a scholarship student with a poor background, being friends with _the_ Arthur Pendragon, the most popular and powerful boy in school. Shaking his head with much disbelief, Gaius motioned towards the table.

"Dinner will be ready in half an hour. By the way, your friend Will has called every twenty minutes since three o'clock." Right on cue, the phone rang. Merlin with a guilty, apologetic grin on his face ran to pick up the phone and headed to his room.

"Hi Will!" Merlin quickly pulled the phone away from his ear, cringing, Will's screaming coming out of the phone, "AND WHERE THE BLOODY HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

* * *

  
**So how was that? :D Next chapter will probably involve a P.E class and some of Merlins awesome moves, oh and I'm thinking about bringing in Will a few chapters later on for some jealous Arthur and Will :p Or maybe not, I don't know.**

**Review if you think Arthur and Merlin are an insanely cute couple worthy of having fanfic written by them!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi readers! It's pretty much 40 degrees (celcius, that is) right now and I'm trying to write while the damn Australian sun refuses to give me a break from the heat :( Warning, if there are grammar or spelling mistakes or something just doesn't make sense, it's because the heat is making me delirious and I'm rushing this as I have an urge to get this out before I leave for a small trip (don't worry, it's only like four days so I'll still get the next chapter out pretty quickly)  
*sucking on ice-cube* have fun reading!**

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Between eating dinner, explaining to an insistent Gaius in detail about how exactly he came to know Arthur and talking non-stop with Will who would just not let him hang up, Merlin found himself with no time at all to read 'Great expectations'. He had been pushed to bed by Gaius who insisted that he get some rest in order not to be late for school the next day. Merlin had waited silently until he was sure his Uncle was asleep before excitedly pulling out his book and turning on his light. The book was a hardback, one of which had a separate removable cover, and the first thing Merlin had noticed upon opening the book, was an envelope peeking out from behind the plastic sleeve. Pulling out the un-addressed, un-sealed envelope, Merlin noticed that it contained what felt like a wad of papers. Then freaking out and panicking over the fact that it could be money, possibly stolen from the mafia or something impossibly unrealistic like that, Merlin threw the envelope across his room, half expecting it to explode upon impact. Then with wide eyes, he slowly made his way towards the envelope, jabbing it with a pencil before deciding it was safe to touch. Back in his bed, he hesitated before curiosity got the better of him and he opened it, revealing a small wad of folded papers, deciding if it became too personal he'd stop reading them and put them back. Reading the first paper, then quickly the next and then speedily the ones after it, Merlin huffed out in annoyance as he realised there was no more to read. The papers had been a sort of a small manuscript, the beginnings of a first chapter of some kind of story, but what really got to Merlin was that it was an amazing beginning, the ending leaving him hanging and wanting more. Then forgetting 'Great expectations', Merlin re-read the much smaller story over and over again, each time gaining a new appreciation for the Authors writing style, before falling asleep, papers still clutched in his hand.  
**  
---**

Merlin ran into the gym, much like he had yesterday into the lab, only this time he managed not to fall over. He was late by about ten minutes, having slept through his alarm clock, and was now met with the face of a very stern looking P.E teacher.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Began Merlin, subconsciously scratching the back of his head with his right arm and smiling sheepishly.

"At ease, solider! Quit your excuses, put down your stuff then join the rest of the squad."

Arthur watched as Merlin headed down to the back of the gym to put down his bag with everyone elses. He was dressed in the proper school P.E uniform, and there was nothing wrong with that unless you counted the fact that nobody _ever_ wore the proper uniform. It was deemed dorky and was always changed up ever so slightly by the school students. For example, girls would wear shorts of the same navy blue, but much shorter and more "stylish". They would also tailor their shirts so that it showed their figure more, one girl last year had gone too far and made hers a midriff, landing herself in detention for "inappropriate gym clothes". The boys would change their shorts entirely, opting for a more baggy khaki version and a slightly baggier shirt of the same colour as the school P.E uniform, just without the school crest. Arthur noted that Merlin actually _looked_ good in the damn P.E uniform, the clothes fitting perfectly and the darkness of the shorts making his skin look even paler, and in turn accentuating his dark hair, his blue eyes and his red lips. Morgana, who was also in the same P.E class and did not seem to notice the _way_ Arthur was looking at Merlin, was looking at the boy as well, but perhaps not in the same way, smiling and waving him over when she caught his eye. Grinning, the boy ran up to the two and let out an enthusiastic "Hi!" Merlin looked like he had been about to talk to Arthur when he was called up to the front of the class by the very tough Lt. Black.

"What's your name, private?"

"Merlin Emrys."

"You will address me as Lieutenant or Sir."

"Sorry, Merlin Emrys, _sir._" Replied Merlin, putting the tiniest bit of sarcasm on the 'sir'.

If Lt. Black was impressed by the gangly looking boys assertion, he did not show it on his impassive face.

"It is mandatory that you complete a course on your first lesson so that I can assess your abilities," he paused for a while to look over Merlins frail body, ".. or lack thereof."

Merlin groaned, he had never been good at sports, only ever acing gymnastics whenever they had it in their small P.E class back in Ealdor.

"First task, catching!"

Merlin had barely anytime to register what was happening when he was bombarded with a storm of balls. The rest of the class were throwing it at him with all their strength, making it impossible for the scholarship kid they all hated, or _should_ hate, to catch them. Morgana and Arthur, having felt sorry for their friend, had tried not to throw any additional balls, only doing so when Lt. Black looked over to them, and even then they threw lightly. Well, Morgana threw lightly. Arthur had tried to but his natural build, physical fitness and instinct meant that his 'light' throws were really bordering on 'hard'. Unimpressed but not surprised, the Lieutenant marked down the results for task one on his clip board.

"Task two, running!"

Not exactly knowing where exactly he was meant to be running too, Merlin hesitated before starting to run towards the back of the gym.

"Wrong way, solider!"

Ears red from embarrassment, Merlin turned around and ran to the front of the gym. Shaking his head, the Lieutenant watched as the new boy nearly tripped over his feet at the end. Shame, he thought, he was really quite fast, just a tad bit clumsy due to the length of his legs.

"Task three, kicking!"

Merlin without much enthusiasm made his way towards the footballs he was meant to kick. Trying his best, Merlin thought back to Ealdor where in the fields Will had tried countless times to teach him how to kick a football properly. Like back then, Merlins kick was feeble at the most. Frowning, Morgana nudged an anxious Arthur, "Not doing that great, is he?" The rest of the classed cheered, while pointing and laughing, after all, the scholarship kid was meant to be bad at sports, everyone knew that.

Shaking his head, the Lieutenant shouted out, "Task four, climbing!" Already writing a fail down on that part as climbing the wall was probably the most difficult out of all the tasks. Only his brawniest students ever made it over by pulling them selves up, and even then with great difficulty. What hope was there for the boy who lacked muscle and failed to kick a football?

Merlin, however, felt relief wash over him upon seeing the high brick wall he was expected to climb and jump over. He had done this a million times in Ealdor when Will would convince him to sneak over with him over the wall separating Will's and Mr. Slash's garden to take mulberries from the latters mulberry tree. Facing the wall, Merlin turned around and headed away from it. The rest of the class took this as a retreat and silently cheered, Lt. Black was disappointed that the boy didn't even try. Then turning around and surprising the hell out of everyone, Merlin ran towards the wall, running and scaling up the wall, crossing over in one swift movement, his face showing no signs of having tried very hard.

Surprised by the sudden show of skill, but keeping up his composure as he was taught in the military, he shouted out the next task.

"Task five, dodging!"

The rest of the class, save from Morgana and Arthur who were now the ones silently cheering, were angry and extremely annoyed. Not one of them that year, expcet for Arthur of course, had managed to get over task four, so what was with the scholarship student who was meant to be worse at them in P.E doing passing and getting over the wall as if it were a breeze? With determination to hit him as many times as possible to show themselves that they were better at sport, the rest of the class picked up their balls readily. Merlin, who now had caught up to the speed of the course and did not have to worry about trying to _catch_ the balls, dodged them with ease, side stepping and jumping, even once doing a backward flip on one hand to avoid two different balls, all with a look of calm on his face. The students tried their hardest not to look impressed, Lt. Black, who was impressed but easily hid it, was now intrigued by the boys agility and skill (it had taken him quite a while to master a one handed backwards flip and even more to do it easily and quickly when it was needed to avoid something), so deciding to add a little to the last course to further test the boys skills, Lt. Black called out the last task.

"Task six, balance beam!"

Merlin moved over to a long balance beam, and was about to walk across when the Lt. Added another beam to the end of the already long balance beam.

"Get across without walking or running."

The class frowned, the Lt. always said that to the kids who had done well in the test. Everyone had assumed it was a test of wit since really, there was no way to get across without running or walking. Pretty much everyone who had to do it just crawled or slid across. Although he never said it, the Lieutenant was always disappointed, expecting something more spectacular, only to remind himself that these were high school students and not his platoon. Merlin pondered a little before with a look of uncertainty he backed up like he did at the wall. Then running up, he cartwheeled across, performing them right after one another and not stopping till he got to the end, jumping off with a flip and landing on his feet. Finding it harder to hide being impressed, the Lieutenant sent Merlin to change with the rest of the class with a gruff "good job, private." Arthur who had been in awe despite already having seen his friend in action was trying to fight the images in his mind of the beauty of Merlin's performance at the end when he had moved so gracefully. He didn't have to try hard for as soon as the Lt. dismissed the boy and he walked over to Morgana and Arthur with a grin on his face, Merlin tripped over a stick. Arthur rolled his eyes and grinned, playfully flicking the boy on his head.

**---**

Arthur returned a grin as he saw Merlin enter the room into their Advanced English class. He had not seen him since their first period class, Merlin having to say in at recess, according to Gwen who was in his advanced calculus class, to discuss with an enthusiastic Mrs. Cattrinah about the possibility of future careers on in the mathematical field. It was good to have a friend with him in this particular class because although the others in the class were friendly and eager to be his friends, none of his actual friends, aka the popular kids, were in the class, most of them not knowing the difference between 'there', 'their' and 'they're'.

"Hi Arthur!" beamed Merlin, not surprised that Arthur was in the only Advanced English with him due to the results of yesterdays Shakespeare battle.

"Hello Merlin." Smiled Arthur, trying not to seem too excited.

"I've been meaning to ask you something..." began Merlin, not sure whether or not Arthur would be angry at him for reading what may have been private.

Arthur raised his eyes at the pause, "Well spit it out Merlin, or did you forget how to talk?"

Merlin grinned as if it were a compliment and pulled out 'Great expectations' from his bag. Instead of pointing to a certain section or talking about the book like Arthur expected him too, Merlin instead took out an envelope from the front plastic cover sleeve of the book. Arthurs heart stopped momentarily, Oh dear god.. it wasn't.. could it be?

Merlin pulled out the sheets from inside the envelope, confirming Arthurs suspicion.

"I was reading these last night and – "

Merlin was cut off by Arthur who snatched the sheets, blushing furiously and looking down.

"No one is meant to read that." He muttered.

Merlins face fell, he was looking forward to being able to read the rest of the story.

"Sorry, it's just that last night when I found it I thought it was something like mafia money or illegal documents so I chucked it across the room but then when it didn't explode I figured it was safe and so I looked inside. I didn't mean to read them, but you know the story was really good, brilliant in fact and I just wondered what book they were from since I wanted to finish it but if you don't want to tell me it's fine." He blurted out, not wanting the first friend he had made in his new school to be angry with him.

Arthur looked up and raised his eyebrows at the first part of Merlins explanation, slowly questioning the boys insanity then blushed when he realised that Merlin had complimented his story.

"..."

Merlins eyes went big as something clicked in his head.

"Wait, Arthur, did you write this?"

Arthur looked up and saw Merlins face, and suddenly instead of wanting to hide his secret project, Arthur _wanted_ Merlin to be impressed, to be proud.

"Yes.." he replied slowly.

Grinning non-stop, Merlin stopped himself barely from jumping up and down, "Arthur that's brilliant! You're brilliant! Really, you're a seriously brilliant author, brilliant brilliant brilliant!"

A small smile appeared on Arthurs embarrassed face, "You think so..?"

Merlin nodded enthusiastically, "Do you think I could read the rest when you finish writing it?"

Arthur shivered a little involuntarily, not quite sure if he wanted to go down that path again, but none the less, he nodded, "Um, yeah, sure, I guess so."

Merlin squealed, pulling out a packet of snakes from his bag, "Celebration!" (there for not a violation of 'lolly time')

Arthur took a snake and was immensely happy at the fact that someone actually cared, actually liked his writing, especially since that person was Merlin. When he had first started experimenting, writing little stories, he had tried getting Morgana to read and review them, but Morgana, not being much of an avid reader, would read them when forced too, but not with much interest. Not really being able to get his friends to read it as writing was deemed unmanly and dorky, Arthur decided to ask his father. When Arthur had timidly approached him with his story, his father had not even bothered to read it. Instead Arthur got a lecture about writing being a mediocre poor person job and how it was important that Arthur took over their multi-million dollar corporation. With the lack of encouragement needed, Arthur shut away his writing ambition, but not quite wanting to destroy his last story, he hid them instead in his favourite book of the time, 'Great expectations". Watching Merlin who was now facing the front of the class, humming quietly and sucking on a snake, Arthur felt with a smile, the encouragement he needed so long ago come surging in all at once.

**---**

Arthur stood outside the classroom with Merlin, discussing in detail different Shakespearian plays and their importance in the influence of modern day stories, when -thwak- a football that hit Merlin in the side, producing a small surprised yelp of pain as it knocked him to the ground. Then suddenly Nim and Lance were behind Merlin

"Good hit Lance." Smirked Nim, Lance grunted, not being able to conjure any more of a response.

Arthur stepped back and looked at the two with his face twisted in both shock and anger, "WHAT THE HELL!?"

Nim, frowning at being shouted at ,looked back at Arthur, "We saw that stupid scholarship kid bothering you again so I told Lance to get rid of him."

Then stepping over Merlin, who was still on the ground and rubbing his elbow in which he fell on, she linked her arm around Arthur's with a smile.

"And now that he's gone off somewhere, let's walk to class together or maybe even something else if you don't feel like class." Nim said the last part suggestively, Arthur yanked his arm out from Nims in disgust.

"_What_ the hell? First of all, he hasn't gone off somewhere, he's on the bloody ground because you and Lance decided to knock him over. " Arthur bent down and picked Merlin up, "Second of all, he's not bothering me, we're friends." Then dragging a stunned Merlin along, he stalked off to his next class.

Nim frowned, not fathoming how anyone could stand being near some poor kid. Then facing Lance she linked her arm around his elbow, tighter as to ensure he wouldn't yank it away from her.

"He's going through some stupid phase probably," she began, "hormones or some crap like that."

Lance nodded, somewhere in his mind he was trying to figure out how to spell 'phase'.

* * *

  
**Alrighty, I'll tell you what's in the next chapter like last time because I'm excited about writing it :D  
We'll see some awesome dance skills and the school starts to see Merlin in a different light, which just sort of irritates Arthur :p A little bit of jealousy, maybe.**

:) Review if you think Gwen should leave Arthur alone so he can finally go and realise his feelings for Merlin


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the late-ish update but I had a sorta of a writers block D: I'm not sure how a song fic works but hopefully I've done this correctly. In this chapter, where it says "People always talk about, reputation.." in italics, it's meant to be the beginning of "B good 2 me by seany B" playing in the background :p No idea why I chose that song, It's just that I got the idea for this whole AU highschool thing when I was listening to it on my Ipod and I had a mini vision of Merlin dancing to it :l**

**_OH AND IMPORTANT (WELL SORT OF): I sort of said at the end of the last chapter that this chapter would have the school viewing Merlin in a "different light" and Arthur being jealous but I sort of lied, that's in the next chapter because I decided that I would split last chapters idea into two. However you can see the beginning of Arthurs jealousy and the changed views of the school in this chapter._**

**Wow, that was long. Anyway, here's the story (finally):**

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Arthur absent-mindedly paced slowly on the front path of his house, occasionally kicking at the ground and looking up every once in a while towards Morgana and Gwen who were chatting about shoes or something else girly he didn't understand. He looked wistfully up towards his room, and then with a frown at his and Morgana's car sitting peacefully on their driveway. Dammit, he didn't even want to go to the school's welcome back dance. All he ever did at the school dances was stand in some obscure corner with some of his popular guy friends, trying to look cool and mysterious but at the same time avoid the hoards of predatory girls stalking after them. Still, it wasn't like he could avoid it, the stupid dance was compulsory, the only thing that made the thought of going to the dance tonight bearable was the fact that Merlin would be going as well. Smiling at the thought of the goofy looking boy who was apparently late, Arthur was caught off guard as a figure silently crept up behind him, face hovering a few inches away from his ear.

"BOO!"

Arthur yelped and jolted forward, spinning around, only to be met by Merlin who was clutching his sides, laughing. Slightly annoyed, Arthur reached forward and pulled on the other boys ear with a smirk. Merlin yelped out in pain, rubbing his ear with a pout, "Prat." Arthur chuckled and walked towards the car, "Gana, Gwen, Merlin's here, let's go and get this over and done with." Arthur made a huff of annoyance when the girls blatantly ignored him, instead continuing on with their conversation which had now shifted over to what features made a perfect guy. Arthur turned to complain to Merlin but was caught off guard the second time in the night. As opposed to the darkness of the pavement in which they were on before, shielded by the tops of trees, the two boys were now standing in the moonlight next to the car, giving Arthur his first good look of Merlin that night. Merlin was staring up at the stars, a faint smile on his face and his mop of impossibly dark hair ruffled slightly by the wind. He was wearing a blue fitted t-shirt with black skinny jeans and what looked like a small version of a red neckerchief tied to his wrist, contrasting nicely against his pale skin. Arthur quickly looked away, his throat dry and his neck beginning to redden. After being forcefully dragged by Arthur, the two girls joined the boys and the four drove off towards the school.

**---**

The music pumped through the air, Arthur and Merlin sat silently at a small table that conveniently fit four. All around the hall, the same small clusters of boys sitting idly was replicated. Morgana and Gwen ran breathlessly back to their table, heart pumping from the sheer amount of dancing they had done. Arthur greeted them with a brief nod as Merlin gave them a small, bordering on sad, smile. After sitting for about a minute, the two jumped up again, not being able to stand the boredom of sitting down when they could have been dancing. Before heading out back to the dance floor, Morgana turned towards Merlin.

"Merlin, come dance with us!"

The boy flashed her smile before making to stand up, only to be pulled down again by Arthur who gave him a small shake of the head. With a pout, Merlin sat down again and sighed. Arthur's attention was momentarily caught by Nim, who was now dancing directly in front of him. He had to admit she was good, in fact she was a lot better than everyone else on the dance floor who were just shuffling to the music while she was actually moving in a way that caught people's attention. Then to Nim's annoyance, Arthurs gaze shifted to the boy next to him, frowning slightly at the sad expression on the pale boys face. Merlins status at school was one Arthur wanted to keep. He was neither popular nor non-popular, but then again nor was he in-between. He was sort of hovering, students preferring to avoid him simply due to the fact that they did not know how to treat him, a scholarship student who also happened to be a friend of the most popular boy at school. No one really took notice of him anymore, which also in turn meant that no one tried to hurt him. Arthur shivered from the memory of Merlin and Mordreds gang, vowing to never let anything like that ever to happen again. Dancing when you were a guy who was not dragged onto the dance floor by an insistent girlfriend was social suicide in Camelot high, and Arthur was not going to let Merlin make a fool of himself, he was not going to let Merlin fall back into the range of "should be bullied". Merlin was now tapping a beat with his fingers onto the table, his feet itching to dance. He glanced longingly at the happy students on the dance floor who were actually enjoying the night instead of sitting with absolutely nothing to do at a table. He wouldn't have minded so much if he could just talk to Arthur, but the music was too loud which meant that he might as well have been sitting down by himself. As the next few songs passed, Merlin contemplated just jumping up and running onto the dance floor before Arthur could stop him, and was trying to think of a legitimate excuse for if he got caught when the current song ended and a familiar beat started playing,

_"People always talk about, reputation"_Arthur, who he admitted had been been shamelessly sneaking glances at the boy next to him, watched as Merlins face lit up with a brilliant toothy grin. Jumping up, Merlin began to walk to the dance floor when he felt a tug on his arm. Merlin turned around with a momentarily confused expression on his face, as if forgetting why he had not been dancing from the beginning. Arthur raised an eyebrow,  
"Social suicide?" he half-shouted.

Merlin frowned before brandishing the toothy grin again,

"Who cares Arthur! Let's dance!"

Arthur shook his head and made to pull Merlin back, but lost his grip as the boy did some sort of a weird twist. Running towards the dance floor, Merlin shouted back to Arthur,

"I love this song!"

Arthur twitched as half the dance floor froze as Merlin approach. Groaning, Arthur walked slowly with embarrassment, hoping to pull the gangly boy away before he did too much damage. And then Merlin was dancing. Not just shuffling or bopping along to the music, but actually dancing. Arthur, along with the rest of the students were now watching Merlin with amazement as he moved his body as if it were second nature, throwing in a few b-boy tricks, making it seem like he had been dancing his whole life. Merlin, sensing that everyone was staring, stopped, and looked towards the small crowd that had gathered around him. For a moment, everything was silent but the song playing in the background, then Morgana and Gwen started cheering. Slowly, more and more people joined in and suddenly people were dancing again, however a circle of viewers remained around Merlin. Arthur, among the crowd, watched, mesmerized by the way Merlin was moving. Nim, who was now even more annoyed due to the fact that her own crowd of small followers before had disappeared, stopped and stalked towards the large group standing in the middle, wondering what on earth they were all looking at. Hissing, she saw it was the scholarship boy dancing. The weird thing was, he was actually good, in fact, he was as good as the professional back up dancers her mother sometimes was hired by. Almost growling, Nim pushed her way into the invisible bubble around Merlin who momentarily stopped dancing again, stepping back on instinct in case she were to attack. The truth was that Nim had been about to throw a hissy fit, but changed her mind as she spotted Arthur in the crowd, watching. Slowly an idea formed in her head and instead she started dancing. With a smile, which Nim returned, although hers a little creepy, Merlin began to dance again, happy to have someone to dance with as the awkwardness of dancing alone while everyone was watching was starting to get to him. Nim moved closer to Merlin, and smirked as she heard the crowd cheer. She moved even closer, making sure to use as much body contact as possible. Merlin flinched back, but slowly as his dancer within got the better of him, he danced back. Arthur was glaring, really glaring. Something bothered him about Merlin dancing with someone, especially due to the fact that that someone was throwing herself at him like some desperate hussy. He let out a low growl as Nim touched Merlins arm again for the hundredth time. Arthur turned and walked back to his table, sitting alone, anger seething out. Meanwhile, Nim let out a smug grin as she watched Arthur practically breathing out anger. It was working, Arthur was totally jealous that Merlin was dancing with her. She sighed out happily while dancing, almost feeling sorry for Merlin as there was no doubt Arthur would pulverise him afterwards for dancing with someone he obviously liked. The song ended and both Merlin and Nim fought their way out of the circle, the crowd of followers dispatched. Arthur sat facing away from the dance floor, a plastic cup crushed up in his fist. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Arthur snapped around, ready to bite off the persons hand. His anger turned to confusion as he saw Merlin with a stretched out hand and a wider grin.

"Dance with me Arthur."

Arthur's face hardened, "Why don't you just go dance with Nim and leave me alone."

Hurt flashed in Merlins eyes and Arthur instantly wished he could taking it back.

"Sorry," he muttered, "I just hate it here, alright?"

Merlin looked deep in thought before his eyes lit up again.

"Then we'll leave."

Arthur rolled his eyes, "It's a compulsory dance you idiot. There are teachers blocking the doors."

Merlin flashed Arthur a grin before winking, "Like that's going to stop us."

Then without waiting for a reply, Merlin dragged Arthur towards the halls toilets. Inside it was a lot quieter, the door being supposedly sound proof, for what reason, Arthur did not know. Looking around Arthur sighed,

"If your grand plan is to stay in here for the rest of the night then really Merlin, that's pathetic."

Merlin pouted before glaring defensively at the other boy, "You're an incredibly big prat you know?" Arthur interrupted dryly, "You never fail to point that out."

Rolling his eyes, Merlin pointed to a dusty window, "It leads to the west corridor." He said in a matter of factly tone.

Arthur chuckled before climbing in through the window after Merlin. "Escaping through the toilet window, how original." He muttered.

Once safely on the other side and in the corridor, Merlin turned to hi-five Arthur but was instead met with a grim face.

"You know there is a teacher at the front door of the school. How the hell are we going to get out, there are no more cliché escape windows except in the classrooms, and they're locked."

Merlin huffed, "Don't you bag out that window, anyway, there is actually another one of those."

Arthur looked to where Merlin was pointing. On top of a row of lockers was a small window.

"Are you kidding? One, there is no way we can get to or fit through that window, and two, if we jump out of that we'll be out of the school but also bleeding on the floor in a mushy pile of broken bones."

Merlin grinned, "No one said you were going to be the one climbing through. You've got the easy job. When the teacher leaves their post, you run out, ok?"

Before Arthur could reply with a "What the hell does that mean?" , Merlin climbed skilfully up the lockers, pulling open the slightly rusted window. Then twisting his limbs in an almost impossibly flexible manner, Merlin was out the window. Not really knowing what to do, Arthur stood lamely next to the lockers. Then he heard a shout coming from the front door.

"Hey you! Stop!"

Running to the front door, Arthur saw Mr. Culver chasing after a darting back figure. With a small quiet laugh of disbelief, Arthur ran out into the crisp night air. Not exactly knowing where he was going, he ran across the green pausing for breath under a tree. Then suddenly, much like the day they first met, Merlin popped out from the branch, hanging upside down, this time, a mischievous grin on his face. Dropping down from the tree, the two looked at each other with a straight face before bursting out laughing. Then, silently, the boys crept towards the back gates and walked safely out of school grounds. After calming down, they started to walk along the pavement to no place in particular.

"So, I didn't know you took dance lessons."

Merlin smiled distantly before replying,

"I don't."

Arthur rolled his eyes, "So you just suddenly learnt how to dance like that."

Merlin grinned sheepishly, "When I turned sixteen, Will dragged me to a club outside of town. After that, we went quite a few times on week-ends, after dancing that much in a club you just kind of learn. Also I guess Will taught me a little."

Arthur raised his eyebrows, "How'd you get in?"

Merlin poked the tip of his tongue out guilty, "Will had fake ID's"

Arthur shook his head and chuckled, "Never knew you were such a rebel."

"Will is a seriously horrible influence," Merlin smiled before adding the next bit, "But we've been best friends since we could talk, and really, he's not bad, he just likes the feeling of doing something exhilarating."

Twitching a little with jealousy but choosing to repress it, Arthur just nodded briefly. They were now just a block away from the school, the music from the hall surrounding them faintly. With a grin, Merlin started dancing on the middle of the road to the current, cheesy, spice girl's song. Arthur watched with a smile, he preferred it this way, when only he could see Merlin dancing. Then Merlin reached out and pulled Arthur to the middle of the road. Laughing, the two of danced in the night, blonde hair and raven black hair glinting in the moonlight.

* * *

**So that you guys don't get too angry at me for being late, here's a slightly more detailed preview of the next chapter:**

Nim uses Merlin in an attempt to make a certain blonde boy hers. The school, now having confirmation that both the head boy and one of the most popular girls are "friends" with Merlin, start treating him differently which slightly irritates Arthur (he wants to keep a certain goofy looking boy to himself, or at least shield him from fake friends). Oh and we see a little bit more of Lance (gasp - Lance/Gwen?!) :D just maybe.

Hm, I feel like writing a few christmas one-shots - look out for them ;)  
As always, reviews are love!


	6. Chapter 6

**Yay for chapter six! I'll try upload the next chapter a little quicker :) Nothing much else to say this time, so start reading and enjoy!  
**  


* * *

  
Merlin and Arthur walked slowly towards the front steps of their school, watching the ever present Nim running towards them. Arthur rolled his eyes and Merlin chuckled,

"Brace yourself, you're about to be devoured by a fan girl."

Nim ran towards the two, carefully rehearsing her plan in her head.

"HIIIIII,"

The two boys waited for the ridiculously long and dragged "Arthur" that usually followed.

"..MEEEEEEERLIN!!"

The whole school froze, everything eerily silent, then in a split second, almost like the pause never happened, everybody nervously resumed what they were doing, making sure to watch the three and the curious incident unfolding before them in the corner of their eyes.

Arthur did a double take as Nim grabbed onto Merlins arm, flashing the raven haired boy a slutty smirk. Tugging his arm out of her grip, Merlin looked nervously at Nim, giving her a weak smile, "Umm, hi..?" Then turning slightly towards Arthur, Merlin shot him a quick HELP-ME-SHE'S-CRAZY look, before turning back to Nim who glanced briefly at Arthur.

"Oh, hi Arthur." She said coolly.

Then turning back to Merlin, her voice picked up a much more lively tone,

"You're an amazing dancer, and you know like a lot of people said we looked really good dancing together and I really liked you know, dancing with you."

Arthur had a sudden urge to one-up her story, to blurt out that in fact he and Merlin had spent the rest of the dance together outside alone.

"So, where were you the rest of the night? I couldn't find you like anywhere."

Arthur was too busy silently fuming for a reason he didn't quite know yet to notice Merlin as the boy subconsciously sidled up behind him. Merlin, at the same time, too busy being confused and embarrassed, didn't notice as Arthur subconsciously moved in front of him, puffing out his chest slightly. And Nim, too busy trying to feign interest in Merlins answer, which was a small "I was sitting somewhere with Arthur?", while actually ogling and gaging Arthurs reaction in the corner of her eye, failed also to notice the two small movements. However, Morgana, standing at the school gates, a little shocked but somewhat amused, saw everything.

**---**

At first, it was just a few confident but still unsure "hi's" and smiles in the corridor and in classes, but by lunch time it was a full blown thing. The popular kids, with both their head boy and pretty much self declared head girl being friends with a scholarship kid, decided to declare geek chic to be the official new popular thing. Gwen, during the day so far had been attacked multiple times by people suddenly wanting to become her friend, and had in the end resorted to seeking refuge in a study room in the school's library with Morgana. Of course the scholarship kids were still not as popular as the popular group themselves but were more like a new must have accessory, like little Chihuahuas in hand bags, and Merlin, being friends with both Arthur and now Nim, was the most sort after, providing an almost guarantee climb in the social ladder.

Arthur growled as he watched yet another random girl approached Merlin with an invite to a party. They weren't his friends, not like he was anyway, and they certainly didn't know him, and now they were all flitting to him like they always liked him when just the day before all of them would have happily ignored him. Merlin bit his lip, trying to figure out another way to say no to yet another invite when he was pulled away slightly by Arthur who was now suddenly beside him.

"Merlin, you idiot, have you forgotten, you're busy that day."

Confused, Merlin turned to Arthur,

"I am..?"

He was met with a stern look.

"Oh. OH! Yes, yes I am, sorry" he said apologetically with a tinge of relief by Arthurs well timed lie and appearance. Disappointed the girl walked away, wondering if she could maybe invite Stanley, a scholarship student with asthma and skin problems in the year below them.

**---**

Merlin sat happily next to Arthur on their familiar lab in science, dangling his feet and swinging them back and forth, a feat he could only ever really do on something relatively high like a science stool. Dr. Monmouth walked in, a look of unease on his face.

"Today we're going to change it up a bit. We'll be doing an experiment, but you won't be working with your normal lab partners," Arthur tensed up. Nim, halfway across the room smirked, it had taken quite some bribing and threatening to execute this next part of her plan. "Here are the pairs." Arthur listened closely, hissing softly as to not alarm the boy next to him as he heard "Nim, Merlin." Nim had on a smile which made her resemble some sort of a sinister snake, Merlin quickly adopted an expression of fear as Nim motioned for him to come over to her table. Arthur, meanwhile, was trying very hard to remain calm as his friend walked reluctantly over to the hussy's table. Cautiously, an excited Melissa who was cast as Arthurs partner and had always dreamed of a moment similar to this, approached the blonde boys lab desk.

"Hi, um, I'm your lab partner" she said shyly.

Arthur, who was facing away from the class and towards the window was gripping his side of the desk, knuckles white. Turning slowly towards Melissa, he tried his best to smile while still being extremely pissed off. The result was not pretty, with a seemingly evil and dark expression, Arthur produced a "HI," through gritted teeth, his right eye twitched. Melissa, a little freaked out and not sure what to do, sat down nervously, trying to ignore the dark vibe coming out from the before perfect looking blonde.

"Um, let's get started..."

She trailed off as she noticed that her lab partner was not listening. Arthur spent the whole lesson watching Nim and Merlin, meanwhile, Melissa worked away on their science experiment.

**---**

Merlin reached over to grab the retort stand and resumed setting up. He made the mistake of looking over to Nim who quickly looked away the mirror which was strategically placed so she could watch Arthur. Shooting Merlin a seductive look, she reached out for his arm, "Here, let me help."Flinching away, Merlin mumbled, "Um, it's alright, it's all set up." He proceeded to do the first step without even having to look at the sheet, after all, he already knew how this particular experiment worked. He glanced quickly over to Nim who was now looking bored and lost.

"I can explain it to you if you want?" he said shyly, hoping that Nim wasn't as bad as he thought she was.

A quick look of disgust flashed across her face before turning into a fake smile, "No, I like to watch better."

With a look of unease, Merlin turned back to the experiment. Nim, seeing that she was losing his attention, blurted out "You have really big arms!"

Merlin bit back a snort, his arms were about as thick as a toothpick. "Look Nim, let's just focus on the experiment ok?"

It took all of her restraint not to lash out at Merlin. Did some poor scholarship loser actually dare reject her? With incredibly bad timing, Dr. Monmouth approached their lab table, "So, is the experiment going alright here?"

"Yes, now piss off you sorry excuse of a teacher." Snapped Nim.

Merlin gave his teacher an apologetic look, and as he turned back to the experiment Dr. Monmouth gave him the same look, feeling guilt of having stuck one of his best and well-behaved students with an impossible brat.

**---**

The stack of books came tumbling down from Lances arms.

"Dammit," he swore, crouching down to pick them up. At the same time a pretty hand reached down, helping him reclaim his pile of textbooks. Looking up, Lance flashed the mystery helper smile, "Hey, thanks." Gwen nodded curtly and began to head down the corridor to find Morgana when Lance called out to her,

"Your name's Guinevere, right?"

Raising an eyebrow, surprised that he even knew she existed, Gwen turned around and nodded slowly, "Gwen."

"Awesome."

Gwen waited as Lance stared at her, a dumb smile on his face.

"So like, how come we've never talked before?"

Gwen scoffed, "Because you're popular and I'm a scholarship student?"

Missing the point Lance chuckled, "Yeh, I am popular."

Rolling her eyes, Gwen turned around, ready to leave, when she was stopped yet again by a now confused Lance.

"Sorry if I made you sad or whatever."

Gwen spun around, fists clenched, "Are you serious? My time at this school was hell before I met Morgana and she stopped all the bullying you and your superficial popular friends did to me. And now that suddenly smart kids are the new fad you think that it's all good between us?"

Lance frowned, processing the sentence slowly, "Wait, does superficial mean a good thing?"

Growling in frustration, also not quite believing she just told off one of the most popular kids, Gwen stomped off down the hallway, leaving a very confused Lance.

**---**

"Nim, are smart kids the fad?"

Nim sighed, "Yes Lance."

Lance frowned, and continued onto his next question, "You know, I thought you hated scholarship kids."

"Yes, I do."

Now Lance was really confused, "Then why are you being so nice to Merlin?"

Nim sighed again, "Do I have to tell you everything Lance?"

Not getting that it was a rhetorical question, he was about to answer when Nim cut him off, "One, because he's a scholarship kid, and not that I need it but hanging around him makes me cooler and two, you can't tell Arthur, but I'm using him to get him jealous." Lance frowned, "How?"

Nim smiled, "You see, since Arthur loves me but hasn't realised it yet, by me chasing Merlin, he'll get jealous that I seem to be in love with that loser and then he'll realise his feelings for me and hopefully ditch and beat that skinny freak up."

Lance deepened his frown, "That doesn't seem very nice."

Nim rolled her eyes, "You're lucky you're rich."

**---**

Morgana watched from the banister upstairs as her brother walked into the Pendragon mansion. She looked with concern at the worn, angry and most importantly, hurt expression he bore. Stalking into his room, he slammed the door, he had talked to Merlin for a grand total of about ten minutes today, on account that he was constantly surrounded by Nim and a hoard of followers. She had to do something about this.

**---**

Morgana drove off to school tomorrow early, leaving an apologetic note to Arthur under his door. Searching around, she spotted Nim and quickly made her way towards her.

"Leave Merlin alone."

Nim turned around, then stared at Morgana with disgust.

"Oh, it's you. You know you're lucky that you're Arthurs brother, otherwise you'd just be as pathetic as that girl you hang around.

"Leave Merlin alone." She repeated, ignoring Nim's last comment.

Nim sneered, "What if I don't want to?"

Morgana rarely used her position of power as a threat and a way to make someone do something but this was important.

"If you don't leave him alone and call off this whole stupid 'geek chic' thing then I may just have to go to my dad and god knows he won't be happy that a certain someone is bothering his daughter."

Nim gave a little gasp then narrowed her eyes, "Fine, whatever. He's a loser anyway."

**---**

By lunch time, Merlin, along with the rest of the scholarship kids, were officially losers again. Nim gone back to hating Merlin, much to his relief. Arthur, now in a much brighter mood, sat at the lunch table with Morgana, Gwen and Merlin, an impressive grin plastered on his face.

"Hey, let's go somewhere tomorrow."

The three, slightly weary of the new reenergised prince of Camelot high, raised an eyebrow each. From a lack of verbal response, Arthur continued, "I know! Let's go to the Coffee house."

Gwen looked at Morgana nervously, only the really popular kids ever went there. They served the most expensive coffee ever and were always booked out, the only way in was to be one of Camelot's rich and famous.

Morgana gave Arthur a sly look in which failed to understand, "Sorry, little brother, I'm busy tomorrow. I have a project I need to finish," Looking at Gwen she continued, "Actually, we're working on it together so I guess you and Merlin will have to go alone."

Confused, Gwen was about to voice out that actually they didn't have a project when Morgana kicked her under the table. Gwen gave Morgana a death glare before smiling weakly at Arthur and Merlin, "Um, yeh, sorry guys."

Arthur turned to Merlin with a grin, "Just the two of us then." Merlin returned the smile, Arthur grinned bigger, he missed Merlins goofy smiles.

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**So how was that? Next chapter you'll all just have to wait and see :D**

Review if you think it's about time Arthur found out about Merlins magic (oh and his secret love for him)


	7. Chapter 7

**I know, I lied, I didn't update this any quicker than the last chapter D: I had a little bit of a writers block and everytime I got about halfway through this chapter I scrapped it because it was really that horrible. End product is still not that great, but I've given up, you'll just have to bear with me on this one. Oh, and with my last comment on the last chapter, it was meant to be about the TV show, not this fic, Merlin doesn't have magic in this story - Anyway, here is chapter seven:**

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The coffee house, as usual, was full of the rich and spoilt young adults of Camelot. Amongst the crowd was Arthur Pendragon, sitting alone, head buried in the café's menu in which he had by now memorised. Wiping his sweating palms on his jeans, Arthur self consciously touched his hair then stopped, pulling his hands back down he wondered why it was that he was acting so nervous when all he was really doing was meeting a friend for coffee. But then again, this wasn't just a friend, this was Merlin. Gawky, idiotic, intelligent, and suspiciously attractive Merlin. That morning, Arthur had woken up and almost immediately lapsed into a routine of pure chaos as he changed and fixed his outfit and hair repeatedly, all the while refusing to ask Morgana for assistance and opinion in the defense that she would most likely use it against him in the future. The end product, though he was unaware of it and completely convinced otherwise, was apparently quite successful, leading to about half of the café's customer's eyeing the lone blonde.

Ten minutes later, a very sullen looking waiter appeared by his table, a familiar skinny frame in tow. Arthur raised his eyebrows at Merlin who was now grinning sheepishly, he didn't know people were escorted to their tables at The Coffee House.

"Mr. Pendragon, this man claims to know you. I am very sorry for the disturbance but he refused to leave without confirmation from you, now if you'll excuse me and I shall escort him out."

The waiter was mentally glaring at the boy behind him. If he lost his job because this then he was literally going to hunt the raven haired boy down. He hated people who tried to get into the café by claiming to know someone rich and famous and he hated even more the people who tried to get into the café by claiming to know someone like Arthur bloody Pendragon, a man who everybody knew and could probably buy the café with his pocket money if he wanted to. I mean, if you're going to lie your way in, couldn't you at least try make your story a little believable?

Arthur groaned, of course, why didn't he think about that? The Coffee House was highly exclusive, basically if they hadn't heard of you or you didn't flash enough evidence of your wealthy lifestyle at the entrance then the tables were all "booked out".

"No, don't escort him out, he's my friend. Make sure that if he ever comes here again you let him in, alright?"

The waiter twitched, not quite sure if he had heard right. The man with the reputation that may as well have made him Prince of Camelot was friends with a complete nobody? Stuttering he bowed, apologizing profusely to the blonde haired male, "S-so sorry, I will personally make sure this never happens again."

Arthur, looking un-amused, motioned towards Merlin,

"He should be the one you're apologizing too. I'm not the one who was made to wait outside and told to leave."

Cringing, the waiter turned towards the other boy, hoping to hell that he wouldn't complain to management. A complaint from someone who was connected to Arthur Pendragon would be like a death sentence. Bowing down again, he was about to start an impressive apology when the boy interrupted.

"Whoah hey, you don't need to …bow. Really, completely understandable, I don't blame you at all."

Shocked, the waiter looked up at Merlin who was now giving him a warm smile. It wasn't often the types that dined at The Coffee House were too friendly, especially not those who had been insulted by a mere waiter.

"Besides, you made some really good points out there."

Smiling nervously back, the waiter nodded in appreciation, "You too sir, now if you excuse me I have to get back to the front."

Arthur frowned, staring at the disappearing waiter,

"What was the points thing all about?"

Merlin pulled on a trademark goofy smile,

"Well, it did take quite some debating and fancy words for them to finally agree to at least let you see me."

Slinking out of no where, an excited looking waitress appeared beside their table, shooting Arthur a flirtatious look.

"Are you ready to order?"

With the sudden urge to impress Merlin and to assert his manliness, Arthur nodded, "Short black. No cream, no sugar."

Glancing over at Merlin, he was prepared to see him looking somewhat impressed but saw instead what seemed like an attempt to stifle a laugh. Frowning, he waited for Merlin to order, wondering what the tastes of his friend were.

"Umm, can I have a hot chocolate," then pausing as if contemplating he added, "and marshmallows on the side if you have any please."

Arthur scoffed, of course. Typical of Merlin to choose the sweetest drink.

In the mean time, the waitress, noticing Merlin for the first time smiled warmly back at him. Pendragon, she always knew was incredibly handsome, but his friend was adorably cute. Giving one last flirtatious glance, this time aimed at both of them, she walked away to give their order.

**---**

Arthur nodded in acknowledgment and Merlin thanked the waitress verbally as their drinks arrived, interrupting their conversation. Picking up his drink, Arthur took a sip, determined not to let the bitterness of the coffee show up on his face. Setting down his cup, a hand instantly reached forward, plopping a few marshmallows into the dark liquid before drawing back. Arthur raised his eyebrows at Merlin who was now chewing on a marshmallow, much like the ones he had just dropped in Arthur's coffee.

"It'll taste better now. Seriously, who drinks short black without cream or sugar? I figured you were just trying to impress the waitress which by the way, judging by the looks she was giving you, I think worked."

Arthur rolled his eyes, a smile tugging on his lip. To be honest, he hadn't really noticed the waitress. Looking over to the girl Merlin nodded towards, Arthur saw that she was actually quite pretty and she was in fact eyeing him, though oddly enough that didn't gain him any satisfaction. Usually he'd take pride in that, making pretty girls swoon, so was it weird now that he was trying to impress Merlin?

He took another sip of his coffee, which he had to admit did taste a lot better. Looking over at the boy opposite him, Arthur took in the full view. He was dressed in a simple combination of jeans and a t-shirt, yet he still managed to looked, dare Arthur admit it, amazing. Arthurs eyes moved up, taking in the milky pale skin and the trademark high cheek bones which were now bouncing up and down due to their owner talking animatedly about some subject. Merlin's hair, as usual, was tussled in a sort of a controlled mess way, and then there were his eyes, that deep blue that that captured your attention, and even more so when they flashed that wonderful gold colour in the light like they was doing now when Merlin moved ever so slightly back. He stared into them, seeing their beauty for the first time properly, then dropping his gaze down, he looked at the raven-haired boys mouth, smiling as he watched it change forms, corners occasionally lifting to a slight grin. And then it was frowning. Confused, Arthur looked back up to the eyes, only to see a frown in them as well.

".. Arthur? Arthur!"

Snapping out of his daze, he was suddenly aware of his surroundings again and more importantly to the fact that he had completely missed whatever Merlin had said.

"What is it? Is there something on my face?"

Arthur looked at Merlin who was still frowning, clearly confused.

"Hmm? No."

Suspicious of Arthurs answer, Merlin continued on,

"Then why were you just staring at my face for the past five minutes?"

About to launch into complete denial of such thing, he was cut off by a look of sudden realization mixed with dread from Merlin,

"Oh my god, I know what it is."

Shifting, Arthur started burning up. This was it, Merlin knew, and judging from his tone of voice, he did _not_ like the fact that Arthur had been checking him out.

"It's my ears isn't it," said Merlin in complete mortification, bringing up his hands to cover them.

"It's not my fault they stick out, and you know mum always said I'd grow into them but obviously she was either lying or she was in that complete state of hopeful blindness I was in when I was eight and waiting for the day I could finally stop being 'Monkey Merlin' – "

Merlin stopped babbling, half pouting and half glaring at Arthur who he had just noticed had been chuckling, half from relief that he hadn't been caught and half from just pure amusement at his friend.

"They seriously called you Monkey Merlin?"

Merlin intensified his glare-pout.

"Shut up. I still haven't really forgiven Will for giving me that nickname on the day we went to the zoo together. In fact, I only really got that nickname after I, being a good friend and all, let Will persuade me to climb into the monkey enclosure with him only to have him take a bloody picture of me next to a monkey and then bring it back to school to point out to everyone how much I looked alike to it."

"You broke into the monkey enclosure." Repeated Arthur with wonderment and disbelief. He knew Merlin had the skills to accomplish such a thing and from what he had gathered, he and this guy Will often got into trouble, but breaking into a damn zoo exhibit was like something out of a movie.

"Well, we got caught pretty quickly by Gaius who was hissing at us to get out before someone caught us," Merlin looked wistfully down at his half finished hot chocolate, smiling slightly at the memory despite it being the birth place of his dreaded nickname, "After Gaius told my mum, she never let me go back to the zoo when we visited Gaius in Camelot. Well, not with Will anyway."

"Besides," continued Merlin, seeing that Arthur was still staring at him with shock and bewilderment, "You've seen the monkey enclosure in Camelot zoo, not terribly hard to climb in to."

Arthur frowned slightly, "No, actually, I haven't."

Merlin raised his eyebrows, "Let me guess, you used to go to some fancy zoo in a far off country instead of the one in Camelot."

"No, I've never been to a zoo before."

Roles reversed, Merlin was now staring at Arthur with bewilderment.

"You've never been to a zoo."

"Never."

"Ever?"

Arthur sighed, "Never."

Muttering to himself, Merlin picked up his cup and drank the rest of his hot chocolate before standing up.

"Get up."

Confused, Arthur stood up, at the same time motioning to the waitress for the bill.

"Where are we going?"

"There is no way I'm going to let you live another day without having ever gone to the zoo."

Sighing, though a tiny bit excited or at the very least curious, Arthur paid the bill then allowed himself to be dragged out by Merlin.

**---**

Arthur stood outside Merlin and Gaius' small house, waiting for his friend to come back out after promising to only take a minute. The house, Arthur observed was really quite small, but he had to admit that despite the size and dinginess of the house, it had a much nicer homely feel than the Pendragon mansion which sometimes gave off the effect of coldness.

Merlin ran back out of the house, face flushed with excitement,

"Alright, we're all set for a proper day at the zoo."

Arthur stared at the fluffy toy monkey clinging to the other boys back.

Going a little red, Merlin tried to explain,

"It's my only backpack besides my schoolbag and that's too big to bring."

Smirking, Arthur started walking,

"Hmm, I'm sure. Let's just go to that zoo of yours."

**---**

Arthur rolled his eyes, though smiled for the camera anyway as Merlin took yet another photo with the old Polaroid he had borrowed from Gaius. Grinning, he waved the developing picture in his hand before stowing it away in his trusty backpack along with the heap of other photo's already in there. Deciding they had seen enough of the elephants, Merlin grabbed on to Arthurs arm,

"Onwards, to the giraffes!"

Running together, the two arrived in front of the giraffe enclosure, puffing. Merlin, who was now leaning against the gate was grinning madly,

"Look Arthur, a giraffe!"

"Yes Merlin, I can see that."

Still smiling, Merlin turned away from the giraffe to look at Arthur,

"Come on, you can't tell me you're not having fun."

Arthur shrugged, smiling a little. To be honest he was having fun, possibly more fun than he had had in ages. And though he didn't want to admit it, seeing certain animals up front and in real life for the first time was quite exciting.

**---**

An hour later, the two walked slowly away from the seal exhibit, having decided to take a rest. Arthur, who was walking slightly behind Merlin who was leading the way, looked at Merlin's backpack properly. Furry and with big ears that resembled Merlins slightly, the monkey had a long looking coiled up tail that was jutting slightly out. Curious, Arthur reached forward gently pulled at it, surprised when it came off and unrolled into a sort of a leash. Merlin, who yet to notice, spotted an ice cream van in the distance. Energy restored, he threw his arms up, screaming "ICE CREAM!" and ready to run – only to be stopped and pulled back. Yelping, he turned around to see an amused Arthur holding onto the monkeys roll out tail.

"You know, I think these backpacks were meant for kids about the age of five but I think it suits your mental age perfectly fine."

Merlin pouted,

"My mum bought it for me the first time we went to this zoo. I ran away and got lost, when she found me I was looking at the monkeys, so she bought me the backpack so she could use the leash to keep me from running off."

Arthur laughed, walking forward and tugging on the leash,

"Come on monkey Merlin, let's go get ice cream."

Standing in front of the van, Arthur looked at the many choices in front of him before picking chocolate. Beside him Merlin snorted,

"Typical."

Arthur raised his eyebrows,

"Oh yeah? What are you getting then?"

Merlin smiled brilliantly before replying,

"Rainbow of course!"

"You know that's just vanilla with colouring right?"

Merlin shot him a glare, "Shut up."

Arthur smirked as they walked away to sit at a nearby bench, ice creams in hand.

**---**

Arthur was lying on his bed, looking through the pile of photos Merlin had given him at the end of the day. He smiled as he came upon one of the both of them standing next to the lion cage, hands up like paws and faces contorted in a sort of a mock roar. Merlin, he noted, was looking particularly adorable in this photo. Groaning, Arthur shook his head, what the hell was going on? There was a time long ago when he had once found Lance a little bit attractive but it was no where near what he was feeling now. No, in Lance's case it was just a slight feeling of lust, in Merlin's case it was… oh dear lord he had a crush on Merlin. At that precise moment of realization, Morgana chose to walk into his room.

"So how was your day with Merlin?"

Arthur rolled over on his bed so he was facing his sister, a solemn look on his face,

"I think I may be gay."

**---**

"Gaius, I'm home!"

Merlin was met with silence. Peering around the room, he decided that his uncle was most likely out buying herbs again. Walking into his room, he was surprised to find a very unamused figure sitting on his bed. The two stared at each other before Merlin, still in shock, broke the silence.

"Will..?"

As if a spell had been broken, straight away the brunette boy replied,

"What happened to emailing everyday?"

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**  
Ooooh cliffie :D? Next chapter, as you would have probably already predicted, will contain Will (actually if I stick with my current vague plan the chapter after that will have Will in it as well).**

Remember to click that green button down there and review, especially if you think that Arthur better find out about Merlins magic in season 3. Seriously, how stupid was it that Arthur just so happened to go unconcious when Merlin did the whole dragon thing and then wake up just when he was finished D:


	8. Chapter 8

**I know I know, I'm a really horrible updater D: I tried to get this out earlier, promise, but I got a very unfortunate case of writers block yet again. I didn't really enjoy writing this chapter and I can tell you that I probably will hate writing the next chapter even more due to that fact that it will be difficult to write :l However, I will try my best because of all the lovely reviews I've gotten so far *hands out Colin Morgan and Bradley James clones* Now heres chapter 8 (finally, might I add)!:**

* * *

"_Will..?"_

_As if a spell had been broken, straight away the brunette boy replied,_

"_What happened to emailing everyday?"_

---

Merlin stood staring, completely unable to comprehend the situation before him. Will's eyes were locked onto his, waiting for an answer. Feeling slightly intimidated, though that really was nothing since Will possessed the power to pretty much stare someone to death, Merlin struggled to say something, his brain desperately trying to formulate some sort of an intelligible answer.

"Wh..?"

Both remained silent after that. Then Will raised an eyebrow.

As if it were planned out, both boys simultaneously broke into a grin, laughing, they pulled each other into a hug. Remembering he was supposed to be at least somewhat angry, Will whacked the side of his friends head. Merlin yelped, attempting to glare at the brunette boy, only failing due to the fact that he was still hopelessly grinning.

"What the hell was that for?"

Will stared triumphantly at Merlin who was now rubbing the side of his head.

"For not emailing me for the past two weeks."

Groaning, Merlin flopped down dramatically onto his bed,

"Oh god, I'm so sorry, I guess I've been.." Merlin's mind flashed to Morgana, Gwen and finally Arthur, who now that he thought about it, had pretty much been involved in every single day since he had been at Camelot, ".. so busy that I forgot."

Will rolled his eyes, "Bloody pathetic you are without me."

Merlin responded by lazily throwing a pillow in the voices general direction.

"Not that it would be unlike you to travel all the way here just to tell me that, and not that I'm not excited that you're here, by the way, I am, but why are you?"

"If you checked your emails you'd know."

Merlin grinned guiltily, sitting up and staring attentively as if to show he really was sorry.

"Well, I thought I'd come and save you from all the rich bastards here and stop you from turning into a complete snob who forgets to email their best friend, so I applied for a sort of a school exchange thing, I'll be going with you to school for the next week."

Merlin broke into a toothy grin, much like the one currently on Wills face.

"That's brilliant!"

---

Arthur fidgeted on the bench, bumping for the tenth time into Morgana who was trying desperately to finish reading 'Wuthering Heights' for third period English.

"God Arthur, calm the hell down."

"I can't Gana." He groaned, burying his head into his hands. "I mean, I don't even know what I'm going to do or like how I'm meant to act."

Morgana sighed, setting down her book.

"Look, just act like you normally do." She bit her lip. To be honest, she had never really been great with giving advice. "I think with guys like Merlin, you shouldn't rush right into it or come on too strong at first. You know, like ease him into it."

Morgana waited for a reply but never received one. Arthur, having spotted the familiar blob of black hair in the distance had stood up automatically and was now making his way towards it.

He was walking towards Merlin, purely out of habit, and now that he was nearly halfway to the boy he realized his mistake. He had absolutely no sodding idea how he was meant to act. Panicking, he glanced over his shoulder to his sister, hoping for some kind of help or at least encouragement. Morgana was reading her book. Stupid Morgana. He was nearly right in front of Merlin now, but that was ok. He had decided his course of action. He would smile his most charming smile, however he would counter that with calling his friend an idiot as to not to cause to much suspicion yet at the same time be alluring, and to top it off he would do it whilst causally moving to Merlins side so they would be walking together, maybe he could even accidently brush his arm against the other boys. In all this planning he had failed to see the new brunette figure.

"Hey idiot." Arthur flashed his teeth, hoping to god that it looked charming and not creepy. He had made about one step towards Merlin's side when a figure stepped threateningly in front of him, and almost certainly protectively over Merlin. Frowning, Arthur was prepared to glare at the offending figure which had just ruined his perfect plan when he met the brunette boys eyes. Seeing the protective steel glint in them, Arthur couldn't help but let out a small involuntary shudder. He had a glare that beat his fathers, and it was rumored that Uther Pendragon once stared an unfortunate cat to death. Gathering himself, because after all, he was a Pendragon, he glared right back at the boy. Who the hell was he and why did it look like he was protecting Merlin? Arthur's expression changed to momentary confusion as a slim, pale hand appeared on the brunette boys shoulder.

"It's alright, he's my friend."

The brunette boy frowned, turning his head slightly to the side yet making to sign of retreat.

"He just called you an idiot."

Arthur almost let out a growl. It was his job to protect Merlin, it was him who had stopped the attempts at bullying, so who was this random to go and take his job and make him seem like the bad guy?

"As I recall, you called me bloody pathetic yesterday so I don't really think you can use that as a valid argument."

As quick as lightening, the boy spun around, placing a strategic foot and pushing the raven haired boy over. Unguarded, Merlin proceeded to fall forward. Anger and alarm ran through Arthur as he moved to catch his friend. Yet again his plan was foiled as the brunette boy, as quick as he had placed the attack, swooped down and caught the gangly boy before he hit the ground. With a mischievous smirk, the boy laughed,

"Judging by that, I'd say my description of bloody pathetic without me fits perfectly. Really Emrys, I don't know how you survived without me."

Arthur, not really wanting to see where this was going, interrupted before the relationship before him could develop any further.

"So, are you going to introduce me Merlin?" said Arthur with slightly more edge than he expected.

"Oh, right, yes."

Merlin smiled sheepishly, "Arthur, this is Will, and Will, this is Arthur."

Will. Merlins best friend from Ealdor. The one that he always mentioned with cheer in his voice. The one that he had obviously spent a lot of time with. The one that seemed closer to Merlin than he did. Arthur's right eye twitched.

Merlin, oblivious to Arthurs silent fuming, continued talking.

"He's going to be going to school with us for the week, isn't that brilliant?"

Arthur stared the arm draped lazily over Merlins shoulder. To say that jealousy and annoyance was surging through him right now would have been an understatement. Turning around, lips drawn in a thin line, Arthur managed a sarcastic "brilliant." before stalking back through the school gates.

"Gee, wonderful friend that guy is." Said Will with equal sarcasm.

Merlin, however, was frowning, staring worriedly after Arthur.

"He's not usually like that, I wonder what's wrong."

Will rolled his eyes, "He's probably just upset because daddy wouldn't buy him another Ferrari."

Merlin sighed. Will had had the most hostile attitude possible towards anyone who was wealthy since a major company had stepped in and ruined his dad's small business which in turn had turned his once family oriented father into an alcoholic mess that had eventually left him and his mother.

"You know, not everyone at this school is like that." Replied Merlin, still staring at the retreating Arthur.

"Whatever Emrys. Come on, let's get to this school of yours so we can scope out the grounds and begin planning."

Merlin raised his eyebrows, crossing his arms across his chest.

Will shrugged, grinning mischievously, "What? It's not like I'm staying so I may as well raise a little hell here for the rich pompous students of Camelot to see."

---

"For someone who just found out who the love of their life is, you sure are grumpy. What's wrong?" Asked Morgana, as she plopped down next to her brother, having finished her own painting.

It was art, a period Arthur usually relatively enjoyed as one, it was one of the classes in which he shared with Merlin, and two, he quite liked how painting was like writing, it sucked you into your own little world where everything worked the way you wanted it to.

Arthurs canvas was currently blank and he was in no mood to paint. Mr. Leon had figured out that much when he walked by the younger Pendragon, opening his mouth to query about the blank canvas only to close it again and scurry away as the blonde shot him a death glare.

"I'm not grumpy. Nothing's wrong. Go bother someone else with your stupid questions." Replied Arthur through gritted teeth.

Morgana, ignoring the comment, looked almost gently at her brother. "Are you sure it's nothing to do with that?" she asked, nodding her head in the direction of Merlin and Will sitting on the other side of the classroom. Arthur, who had been staring at the two for pretty much the whole lesson looked down angrily as he saw them laugh yet again, Merlin having reached across and painted a very artistic moustache on Will who was now waggling his eyebrows and doing an impressive impression of a French man.

"Go away Morgana."

Morgana stood up to leave just as the bell rang, the tiny amount of patience she held with her brother having been used up, "Moping and being stupidly jealous about it isn't going to do anything." She said before turning on her heels and walking out the door.

Ignoring his sister, Arthur began to pack up, stuffing things in his bag with more strength than needed. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Arthur turned around angrily, irritation laced his voice.

"_What?_"

He was met with Merlin who was now looking slightly hurt.

"I just wanted to ask if you wanted to walk to lunch together."

Arthurs expression softened, feeling a little guilty at having lashed out at the boy and was about to agree when the ever present Will appeared at Merlins side.

"Come on, let's go, I seriously am starving."

Expression hardening again, Arthur looked away and picked up his bag, "Sorry, I'm sitting with Kay and everyone else today." He said in a curt voice, turning around and grabbing an unsuspecting Kay's arm.

"Uh, hey man."Said Kay with a little confusion, though by no means was he upset. It had been a while since the unofficial head boy of Camelot High had sat with them.

Frowning, with the hurt still evident on his face, Merlin let himself be tugged away by Will.

---

"..And then she totally denied it but it was like, so obvious she did it.."

"..Did you know that cantaloupe is like a fruit and not an animal.."

"..Size zero? God she's at least a four.."

Arthur drifted in and out of the groups various conversations. God, were they really always this boring and superficial? He looked gloomily at the incredibly tiny salads the girls were eating and unconsciously picked up his burger, taking a bite and wondering how they managed to survive on just a few leaves.

"Hey man, you going to eat that?"

Arthur glanced at the small pudding. He didn't even like pudding, the only reason he took it every lunch time was so he could give it to Merlin who having the sweet tooth he had, loved anything sweet. He had taken today's one out of habit.

"No, you can take it Lance."

Lance smiled, thanking Arthur before taking the small bowl. In the corner of his eye, he watched his friend warily. Though they had never been very close, but then again, the only thing holding the people in their group together was status, Lance could see that something was bothering Arthur.

Laughter erupted yet again from across the cafeteria on the table where Merlin, Morgana, Gwen and now Will sat. Lance watched as Arthur tensed, then angrily bit into his burger. He sighed. He knew that people called him stupid behind his back and that he wasn't the sharpest tack in the box but he was smart enough to see what everyone else on the table could not. Arthur didn't want to sit here with the popular, glamorous kids of Camelot High, no, Arthur wanted to sit with his friends. What puzzled Lance was why he didn't just go do that in the first place. In the end, he settled for the fact that Arthur had probably had stomach cramps and therefore had chosen to sit at the popular table that was close to the door rather than walk painfully all the way over to the other table on the far side of the cafeteria.

---

Nervously, Merlin walked into the lab, slipping into his usual seat besides Arthur.

"Hi Arthur."

There was no reply.

Merlin tried again. "Arthur..?"

Silence.

"Arth-"

"For gods sake, I heard you the first time."

Hearing the unfriendly tone, Merlin flinched back, however not completely surprised due to the recent events.

"Why are you angry with me?"

"I'm not angry with you." Replied Arthur in a small, cold voice, looking forward.

With a small frown, Merlin gently touched Arthurs arm, "Whatever I did, I'm sorry."

"I'm not angry with you." Arthur moved his arm away from the touch that he had so wanted to feel.

Merlin leaned forward, peering at Arthur with concern.

"What's wrong?"

"Dammit Merlin, just drop it!"

The class went on without their usual chattering and banter. Merlin's numerous attempts at friendliness were ignored and he found that the only answers he could get out of his friend were cold one worded ones designed to stop conversations. As soon as the bell rang, Arthur walked out of the room, leaving a hurt Merlin behind.

* * *

** :L This was actually a lot longer but I ended up cutting out the end due to the fact that my brain went to mush. Next chapter will contain a fight, a kiss, some screaming and some pushing off. Sound exciting :D? I hope so.**

Anyway :p, If you're like me and only just managing to survive the Merlin TV drought by reading fanfiction and rewatching old episodes, click that green button down there!


	9. Chapter 9

**GAH, I'm really sorry for the long wait guys D: I had a bunch of work to do (my apologies are getting old, I know, I should just start updating quicker right?) This chapters not very long, but A LOT happens so I hope that makes up for the length. Oh and there's quite a bit of swearing in this chapter, so you know, warning. Omg, it's Chapter nine:**

* * *

Arthur found the next two days passing in a now all too familiar cycle. He would see Will do something irritable and annoying such as smiling at Merlin which in turn would get him jealous, all of which he took out on the raven-haired boy by being extremely cold and detached in a subconscious attempt at making him feel as hurt as he himself felt. This of course leads to Merlin launching into the adorable, confused and hurt puppy mode which then leads to the part of the cycle that Arthur hates the most because it's when he can't help but hate himself for hurting Merlin so he plans to apologise and go back to being friends and everything seems to be about to get a whole lot better, when right on cue, Merlin does something irritable and annoying such as smiling back at Will. Of course the plan is aborted and then Morgana yells at him for being a stubborn prick. Repeat.

The busy west corridor considerably darkened as the Arthur made his way through to his locker. Morgana, still angry at him for being the stubborn prick he was, had driven off to school without him. Having walked for about twenty minutes to school, and with the Merlin-Will thing already bringing him down(not to mention he realised he had developed writers block since Monday), Arthur was not a happy man.

Fiddling with his lock, Arthur growled as the combination failed to work, delivering a swift kick to the row of metal boxes.

"Hey man."

Arthur sighed, running a hand through his hair,

"Hey Lance," he replied less than enthusiastically.

Not really catching the tone, Lance grinned and started to recount the less than interesting events of his day yesterday while Arthur stood silently with a grim expression waiting for a cue to leave. All of a sudden, Lance stopped his stream of talk, turning around to frown at what seemed to be the door to the janitor's closet. Arthur, taking the silence as a sign to go was about to leave when Lance grabbed onto his arm.

"I swear I heard something in there. Like maybe a squirrel or something."

He listened with raised eyebrows as he heard a small thump and then more silence. More likely than a squirrel it would be something along the lines of an overly excited, freshly pubescent couple eating each other's faces off.

"Just leave it alone Lance."

Lance, still thinking of the imaginary squirrel in his mind, moved to the door anyway to free the poor critter. Arthur shook his head, he felt sorry for the unfortunate couple inside.

Lance opened the door. Out tumbled Will and a familiar mop of raven black hair.

**---**

All activity and sound in the corridor ceased save for the two boys hastily standing up, as everybody trained their curious and gossip hungry eyes on the pair. Arthur took in the sight of the rustled, mussed up heads of hair and the look of panic on Merlins face. However, what got to him the most was that the other boy had the nerve to put on that ridiculous mischievous grin.

"Well that didn't go down to-"

Will was cut off by a bitter, dark laugh.

Merlin looked anxiously at his friend,

"Arthur.."

Seething, Arthur looked at the two standing together before training his eyes on Merlin.

"Good fucking job, so sorry we interrupted." Began Arthur, his voice laced with venom.

"We weren't-"

"Fuck it Merlin, you could at least have the decency to own up but I guess you're just as pathetic as I thought you were."

Flinching, Merlin's lower jaw began to tremble.

"I didn't.. I thought we were friends.." he whispered.

Again came the bitter, dark laugh.

"Friends? We were never friends you bloody loser, I was being nice to you because I felt sorry for you."

None of it was true, and Arthur knew it, but it just hurt so much it was impossible to stop.

"It's fucking great now though because I can stop pretending that I ever liked you."

The corridor turned once more to silence as the eyes and ears trained on the three intensified. Nim, who was about to cheer, was silence by Lance who had since the beginning, stepped back, clamping a firm hand over her mouth and glaring daggers into her eyes.

Arthur gaged Merlin's reaction, watching the boy before him break. It hurt so much inside him, and seeing Merlin like that and knowing that he was the cause had, if it was at all possible, made him hurt even more. But he couldn't help it, just one more blow.

"Fucking homo." Spat Arthur. But unknown to the onlookers and to Merlin, the insult was mainly directed at himself.

Merlin was now looking down in an attempt to hide his tears, back and shoulders shaking with uncontrollable sobs.

Will, having let his anger build up, growled at the last insult, stepping in front of his friend.

"Don't you _fucking _talk to him like that." He hissed.

It was too much for Arthur. The whole business of having caught the two inside, the impossible heart break he had felt, the lies building on top of one another, and now, bloody Will protecting Merlin when it should have been himself shielding the raven-haired boy from harm. So Arthur punched.

Will, slightly shocked, though he guessed he should have probably expected that, gasped as he touched the side of his jaw. Arthur, blinded by jealousy and heart-break swung another clumsy punch. Will, this time ready, moved out of the way and delivered his own effective blow, and soon enough the two broke out in fight. Will swung a few more punches aimed at the jaw, before keeling over as Arthur kneed him in the stomach. Gasping, Will found himself pushed onto the ground as Arthur rained down punches onto his face, using him knee to keep him down.

"STOP IT, DON'T HURT HIM!"

Arthur felt the anger leave him then come back at the sound of Merlins frantic, pleading screams. It was not fair that Will got to be with Merlin. It was not fair that Merlin was screaming for Will. Standing up, Arthur made his way over to Merlin, grabbing the boy and pushing him against the wall. It's not fair he repeated in his mind, tears beginning to form in his eyes. It's not fair.

Merlin, closed his eyes, waiting for the pain of a well aimed blow. Instead he gasped, finding instead Arthurs lips crushed against his.

It's not fair. It's not fair. Arthur felt Merlin's soft, warm lips reel back from surprise, then remaining still from shock. It's not fair. It's not fair. He knew he should stop, that it wasn't right for him to do this especially since it wasn't something Merlin wanted. It's not fair. It's not fair. But then he felt what might have been Merlin beginning to kiss back for a split second before he was pushed off and tackled to the ground.

"DON'T FUCKING TOUCH HIM!" screamed Will.

Both were about to start again when they heard Merlin, quiet as he was.

"Please. Just stop," he whispered.

Both of them, staring at Merlin, stopped, unable to defy the waver and plead in his voice.

Merlin looked sadly at the two before turning around and walking away.

**---**

Arthur watched as Will swore silently, getting up and running after Merlin. Tear tracks on his face, Arthur got up, an overwhelming sense of hatred for himself welling up inside, and headed silently for the school gates, there was no longer a reason for him to stay.

**---**

Morgana stormed into the Pendragon manor, her high heels clacking angrily on the marble surface of the entrance. She had heard about her brother's outburst and was furious with him for being so cruel to what she considered one of her best friends. Bursting through Arthurs bedroom door, Morgana stepped back as she heard a crack underneath her foot. She had stepped on an already broken CD, much like the others that were strewn across the floor along with the rest of Arthur's possessions and furniture that weren't too big for him to throw or turn over.

Morganas anger instantly melted as she saw her brother in the middle of the chaos, lying on the floor with angry, hurt tears streaked down his face.

"Oh Arthur.." she whispered, stepping over to cradle her brother.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Morgana spoke up.

"You have to apologise."

Arthur was staring at the floor.

"There's no point."

"Arthur.."

"He hates me."

Morgana stayed silent, it was not in her nature to lie just to make things seem better.

"It hurts Morgana," Morgana tightened her grip on her brother," I hurt him but I love him so much."

Morgana felt tears on her shoulder, "I know baby, I know."

**---**

Arthur reluctantly returned to school the next day. Despite Morgana's heckling to just apologise and try make things better, Arthur decided it would be best to leave it alone. He imagined that Merlin didn't ever want to see him again after all he had done. He would stay away and leave Merlin and Will alone, that much he could give Merlin, no matter how much it hurt. He wanted so badly just to be able to be friends with Merlin again, just to be near him. But even with the chance that Merlin would forgive him, he knew he would go down the same spiral again. Being friends would not be enough.

**---**

Will watched with saddened eyes at his best friend walking beside him. He had lost the happiness in his eyes, his usual high spirits and enthusiasm were gone. He had become detached from the world since yesterday, breaking down in sobs at night when he had thought Will was asleep. With this in his mind, Will approached Arthur alone later on in the morning, pulling him aside.

"We need to talk about Merlin."

Arthur stared dejectedly at Will. He was probably there to tell him to leave Merlin and him alone. He wasn't going to hurt Will for Merlins sake but that didn't mean he had to talk to him.

"I'm sorry I hit you yesterday and I'm sorry for what I did to Merlin. I won't bother you and your boyfriend again."

Arthur turned around, ready to leave, when he heard Will groan.

"Fucking hell." His, voice full of tones of realisation and exasperation.

Arthur watched as Will ran a hand through his hair,

"I don't know why people always assume this, I'm not gay."

* * *

**AHHH! CLIFFIE!! Well sort of :)**

**Next chapter we'll have a proper explanation from Will and some misunderstandings cleared up.**

**Review if you're going to hunt down the writers of Merlin if they hit the reset button on Arthur and Merlin's relationship again like they did in the beginning of series 2 D:**


	10. Chapter 10

**I'll be amazed if any of you are still reading this D: my updating is just appaling now. Really. It's about as bad as the forced Arwen on the show. ANYWAY this chapter isn't even that long (I think it's shorter than the last one) but it's got explanations and a breakthrough in it :) Now for my fail excuses. It's late because 1: I've been busy with a few assignments 2: I was trying to decide which plot line I would go with in the end - and then me being me, I had trouble writing it. And finally, 3 (the most exciting one!): I've been working on a new Merlin fanfic :D which i know i probably shouldn't be doing since I haven't finished this one (which btw, is ending soon. Depending on what I decide, it will either end next chapter or a few after) but i just finished reading 'The book thief' and i've just had this idea in my head and it was annoying the hell out of me so I decided to plan it out. If any of you are wondering, it's going to be called "_The delectable steps of book thievery_" and a modern AU - with Merlin being a sort of a 'book thief', and of course, guess which blond owns a rather impressive book store. Details aren't really worked out yet and I'm still not quite sure about it, but look out for it in case I decide to do it :) **

**Wow, that's a lot for an authors note :p Enjoy the story you wonderful people:**

***One more thing, the last chapter occured on Thursday - This chapter is on a Friday**

* * *

"_Fucking hell." His, voice full of tones of realisation and exasperation._

_Arthur watched as Will ran a hand through his hair,_

"_I don't know why people always assume this, I'm not gay."_

**---**

Wednesday night:

"Merliiin!"

"No."

Merlin turned away from the pleading voice, trying desperately to read in peace. Within seconds that plan was abandoned as his book was torn away and thrown halfway across the room.

"Pleeease Merlin?"

The boy raised an eyebrow. Having been best friends with him for about well, his whole life, Merlin was immune to the puppy dog eyes his friend was now putting on.

"No."

Will pouted for a split second before changing tactics.

"You're strong Emrys, I like that." Will now had on a serious, business-like face. His tone had changed completely.

Merlin rolled his eyes though smiling ever so slightly. It never ceased to amaze him how quickly Will could change his demeanor.

Will pulled out a box from behind him, sliding it casually across the table towards Merlin.

"This box here is full of candy. If you accompany me, I can make it worth your while."

Merlin now adorned a sarcastic look. Picking up the box, he turned it so that the label clearing saying 'Merlin' was facing Will.

"You're bribing me with my own stash of lollies. Really."

Will leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table.

"You've got smarts Emrys, I like that as well. Do me a favour, open up that box of yours."

Merlin frowned, reluctantly peeling back the plastic lid of the box. Sucking air through his teeth, he was met with the sight of two small apples, a half-eaten carrot and a large abundance of sultanas.

"NOOOOOO!"

Will smirked, picking up a sultana and pushing it into the raven-haired boys mouth.

"How's it taste Merlin?"

Merlin glared, "I hate you."

Will beamed, "I love you too mate."

**---**

Merlin tossed the device to Will.

"I can't believe you're making me do this with you."

Will looked gleefully at the stink bomb in his hand.

"A Merlin Emrys designed and constructed stink bomb. You're a bloody genius, you know that right?"

Merlin rolled his eyes, "I swear you live off destruction."

Will pouted, "It's not my fault. These rich kids deserve a whiff of something other than money and designer perfume. Come on, I'll give you a boost up."

Merlin wriggled towards Will, it was incredibly stuffy in the small janitors closet they were currently in, however, it was also the opportune room to deploy their plan as they would be able to place the bomb in the air vent without prying eyes.

Stepping onto Wills hands, Merlin reached up to the vent, only to send both of them tumbling down after spotting a particularly scary spider lurking inside the ventilation draft. They landed with a thud.

Typical Merlin and Will, and despite Merlin's initial reluctance, both boys tried to muffle their laughter and glee. Standing up, both of them heard the dangerously close voices from outside. With their ears against the door, Will whispered to Merlin.

"If we stay here for a while until class starts, we won't get caught."

At that exact moment, Lance chose to open the door.

Tumbling out, Will grinned as he looked over to his friend, "Well that didn't go down to-"

He was cut off by a dark, bitter laugh.

**---**

Present day:

"Look, I said I'd leave you two alone. It's fine."

Will, looking thoroughly irritated, let out a puff of annoyance.

"I'm NOT gay. Merlin is NOT my boyfriend."

Arthur turned around and began to walk mechanically. He was afraid if he stayed any longer he'd punch Will squarely in the jaw like he deserved. Who on earth did he think he was, denying his relationship with Merlin as if it were embarrassing, acting like he was actually a little offended by the idea of having the gorgeous raven-haired boy as his boyfriend. He didn't know how damn privileged and lucky he was just to see the boys amazing smile. Arthur desperately fought off tears as he looked at the injustice of it all. He would have taken care of Merlin. He would have loved him to bits and show him off to the world proudly as his boyfriend. He wouldn't have hidden him away.

Will stared at the retreating back of the Camelot's prince, silently fuming at the failure of the whole talk.

"I'm still talking to you, rich boy."

Arthur turned around, unable to contain his anger any longer,

"What the fuck do you want? I mean, you already have Merlin and god knows that's was the only thing worth having in my fucking life."

Will stared calmly at Arthur. The sooner he got this through the prat's thick skull, the better.

"I'm not gay."

Arthur threw his hands into the air.

"WHAT THE FUCK! YOU WERE MAKING OUT AND GOD KNOWS WHAT ELSE WITH A MAN IN THE FUCKING CLOSET, SO DON'T YOU FUCKING TELL ME YOU'RE NOT GAY!"

Eyebrow twitching, Will pinched the bridge of his nose as to avoid the oncoming headache. With a deathly calm, save for the famous murderous glare in his eyes, he pushed Arthur against the wall.

"Look _buddy. _I don't like you. In fact, I _hate_ you, and the only reason I'm here is because Merlin. I'm. not. gay. Merlin is my best _friend _and most definitely _not _my boyfriend. We weren't making out, we were planting a freaking stink bomb in the air vents. Now before we get any further, do you or do you not love Merlin?"

"I.."

The new information rushed to his head, causing a slight dizziness. With this in his mind, Arthur looked back on yesterday, groaning at what a mess he had made of everything.

"Well?"

Arthur looked at Will, remembering the question and then straightening up, he nodded firmly.

Will looked less than impressed.

"What, did you suddenly forget how to speak?"

Arthur opened his mouth,

"I.." The force of the question suddenly struck him. It was one thing to think it in his head, it was another to actually say it out loud. Saying it out loud would seal the deal. He'd never be able to take it back.

At that precise moment, in the corridors on Camelot High on a Friday morning, Arthur realized he'd never want to take it back anyway.

"I love Merlin."

**---**

Arthur grinned, as if a weight had been lifted off, the words sounded just right in his mouth. His newly founded euphoria was interrupted by Will who had stepped back, allowing Arthur to be in a position less hostile then being held against a wall. His hands were clasped behind his back, his expression remained unamused.

"You're a dick."

Arthur opened his mouth but shut it again as Will held up a hand, signaling for him to stay silent for the time being.

"As I was saying, you're a dick. This whole week I've been here, you've been a complete bastard and an arrogant prat. Also, I think you're downright fucking annoying."

Arthur ignored the urge to punch the brunette.

"However, Merlin seems to think you're this great guy, and apparently you're not always a prat. He's never said it before, but when he's talking about you.. like he feels the same way and even though I think you're a dick, you make Merlin happy.. and.."

For a second Arthur saw almost a very out of place pleading look come across the deadly eyes of the other boy.

".. he's sad right now and.."

Arthur stopped him. He needed to talk to Merlin. Grasping him by the shoulders, Arthur stared straight into his eyes.

"Thank you."

**---**

Arthur ran to his advanced English class with determination and enthusiasm. Upon bursting into the room, he made his way towards the back of the raven-coloured hair he so loved the constant messiness of. This was it, he thought, barely able to contain his grin. It was all coming together, everything would finally work out. He had misunderstood, but that didn't matter now, because he would finally be able to tell Merlin he loved him and they could be together.

He reached forward, placing a hand on the boys slim shoulder

"Merlin." He breathed out

When Arthur looked back on the next moment, he guess he should have expected it. But of course, he didn't, which of course, made it hurt a lot more.

Merlin tensed before jerking up and turning around, books clutched defensively against his chest. A million emotions were written across his face, but the two most prominent were those of hurt and anger.

"Don't touch me." He hissed

The class watched as the mighty Arthur Pendragons heart began to break.

* * *

**I commend you if you managed to get through all of that :s Next chapter, hopefully, will be better AND published sooner. **

**Review my lovely readers if like me, seeing forced Arwen on Merlin makes you cringe ;)**

**Oh, and would you guys prefer the next fanfic to be slash or just really strong friendship, because I still haven't really decided yet. I'm leaning towards slash (because I'm a merthur fangirl xD) but with the plot line I'm not sure if you guys would prefer just a friendship..**


	11. Chapter 11

**Don't kill me D: I know it's been over a month and I suck. Anyway, last chapter! Not too long of an Authors note this time :)**  
**I hope you wonderful readers of mine are still out there, enjoy:**

* * *

Will sighed, lips drawn tight in frustration and right eye-brow twitching. As he battled his way through the crowded hallway after Arthur, Will wondered what on Earth Merlin saw in the blond. The idiot had run off without letting him finish, presumably to do something stupid like approach Merlin with no sensitivity at all and suck the face off the other boy. That of course would not end well, not with Merlin in the mood he was currently in right now. Before he had confronted Arthur, he had given the whole situation very deep thought, thinking up ways to get the two close again, because although he hated the guy, from what he had heard, the two used to look really happy together and he knew that Merlin at least used to genuinely like the guy. He had a whole plan thought out, which of course now was rendered useless since he was silenced and then ditched before he could even utter a word of warning about Merlin.

"_Don't touch me."  
_Will groaned as he heard the distinct voice of his friend. Bloody Arthur Pendragon. Slipping into the room, Will leaned silently against the wall. The damage was done, Pendragon would just have to do it the hard way.

**---**

Arthur flinched at the words, feeling the blow to his heart. Looking into the sad, hurt blue eyes that he so loved, reality hit Arthur. He had done this.

"Merlin.. I.."

Blue eyes narrowed.

"What Arthur? What do you want? For me to leave you alone, to not mention to anyone that we were ever friends? Don't worry, you don't have to worry about me, a _fucking homo _ruining your name. I'm sorry I ever thought we were friends and I'm sorry I climbed up that tree that day."

Arthur staggered back, flinching at each word. The pain in his chest was intensifying. His lips quivered as he tried desperately to say something, anything to the boy in front of him. Helplessly, Arthur watched as Merlin rubbed his eyes against his arm to keep tears from falling before making to walk away. Opening his mouth, Arthur voiced out automatically what he had wanted to say for so long.

"I love you."

Merlin shook, tears now falling freely from his eyes. It had already hurt enough, and now it felt as if Arthur was messing around with him, playing with his feelings.

"Is this some kind of a sick joke?"

"No, Merlin I-"

Merlin looked away, "You said it yourself yesterday. You don't have to pretend anymore."

Arthur stepped over to the shuddering figure, turning the raven-haired head gently so they were face to face. With his hands still cupping the sides of Merlins face, Arthur looked desperately into the cerulean eyes.

"I'm not lying Merlin, I love you and I'm sorry for everything that I've done, I need you to know that I didn't mean anything I said yesterday. Please Merlin."

Arthur hated himself. Staring at the beautiful face in front of him, he knew he didn't deserve any of it, but it was impossible to let go.

The two stood silently together before Merlin tore away. There was no more anger evident in his eyes, instead they were filled with sadness.

"You ignored me for a week Arthur, you beat up my best friend and then you said those things. So don't lie to me."

"_William Dempsey. Would William Dempsey please come to the front office, your mother is here to pick you up."_

Will cursed the bad timing. Although now was perhaps the best time return to less dramatic Ealdor and leave it to the two to sort things out, the interruption from the PA system could not have made things more awkward.

Catching his best friend's eye, Will nodded a small goodbye before exiting as discreetly as possible.

**---**

Will scowled as he made his way to the school car park, cursing the office lady for not calling him _after _his mother had filled out the extensive paperwork that was required.

Beeping the car doors open, Will was surprised to see a familiar dark haired figure already sitting inside, head casually against the car door window.

"Merlin..?"

Without moving, the pale figure responded.

"The left door at the back was always a little faulty, you should probably have it checked."

Will moved inside the car, both boys shifting so that they were sitting comfortably together like millions of times Merlin hitched a ride with Will in his mums car.

"Merlin, what are you doing here?"

Will watched as his best friend attempted to put on a smile, but he could see the fresh tear tracks and after a lifetime of friendship he could tell when the boy was faking it.

"I'm going back to Ealdor with you."

Will sighed,

"No Merlin."

Merlin looked down, fresh tears forming in his eyes,

"Fine," he muttered, reaching for the car door, "I'll take the bus."

Reaching out, Will pulled his best friend into a hug, letting him cry silently into his shoulder for a little while before pushing him gently away.

"Merlin listen to me, you belong in Camelot with Arthur, not in Ealdor digging up bloody turnips on a farm."

"But I – "

Will waved away Merlins response with a hand.

"Do you love him?"

Merlin looked away.

"No." He whispered.

Will sighed,

"Merlin, I know when you're lying to me. Do you love him?"

"He doesn't – "

Growling, Will grabbed onto his friends shoulders.

"Bloody hell, the guys a prick but he loves you. He _loves_ you."

Marching out of the vehicle and pulling Merlin with him, Will pushed him away from the car and into the back end of the schools grass area.

"Merlin, if you turn up in Ealdor, I swear I'll punch you. Only metaphorically because I like you, but trust me, it will hurt. Email me."

Running back to the car, Will was relieved to see both Merlin still standing in the same spot, too stunned to move and his mum in the driver's seat.

Mrs. Dempsey smiled, "Is that Merlin over there?"

Will responded by frantically buckling his seat belt, "Drive drive drive!"

**---**

As Merlin watched the car drive away the words rang through his head, _he loves you._

Looking at the school, he felt a pit of nausea rise up in his stomach, there was no way he could go back in there today. Automatically he began walking until he reached the tree in which he first sought refuge. Deciding this was the best place to hide from the world, Merlin began climbing up, the words still ringing through his head.

**---**

Arthur sat on the tree branch, idly picking at the bark, not really caring that his fingers were beginning to bleed. It was all over, he had ruined the best thing in his life, and boy did it hurt. Hearing scuffling and the small tell-tale signs that somebody was climbing up the tree, Arthur scowled, he was in no mood to accept company. Moving towards the trunk of the tree to tell the imposer to sod off, his breath caught as he met face to face with Merlin Emrys.

Not knowing what to say, Arthur remained silent. He wanted desperately to pull the beautiful figure in front of him into a kiss, to tell him how much he loved him, but he couldn't bear the thought of hearing an "I hate you," or a "But I don't love you," from Merlin on top of what he had already experienced today.

After recovering from shock, the raven-haired boy moved slowly onto the tree branch, sitting somewhat awkwardly next to the blond.

"Hi." Said Merlin, staring off into the distance.

Arthur was relieved, this was more then he could hope for, they were talking however awkward and little it was.

"Hi." He replied softly.

The two sat in silence again, Arthur staring at Merlin and Merlin staring at the horizon before Merlin spoke, turning his head slightly so that he could see the other boy in the corner of his eye.

"I told Will I was going back to Ealdor."

Arthur flinched, he wanted to scream, to beat himself up for letting this happen.

"Oh."

"He wouldn't let me though."

Feeling both relief and gratitude, Arthur reached into his bag, pulling out a thick wad of scruffy looking papers, holding them out cautiously to the other boy.

"I wrote a story about you."

Arthur watched as Merlin slowly picked up the papers, staring blankly at the title page entitled "Wonder boy"

Looking down at the ground, Arthur began talking.

"It's about a boy who's miserable. He's stuck in this horrible world where he doesn't have any real friends and he can't be himself. Then wonder boy comes and saves him. He pulls him out and shows him all these great things. He becomes the boys first real friend and can see who the boy really is. Using his powers, he slowly heals the boy so he's no longer miserable. Then the boy falls in love with wonder boy. It's all fine until the boy gets jealous and he does some horrible things, he chases away wonder boy and now he's back in the shadow world where he's miserable. Only this time he knows that life could be so much better, and it hurts him to know that he did to wonder boy."

Tears formed in Merlins eyes as he listened. At the same time he flipped through the pages, glancing at a few sentences and finding they were mainly descriptions, "_beautiful dark hair..staring into his perfect eyes..beautiful figure hypnotized me..ears entrancingly large" _

"How does it end?"

Arthur smiled sadly, looking up,

"Miserable boy realises that he doesn't deserve Wonder boy."

There was another pause of silence before Merlin spoke up.

"I don't really like that ending."

**---**

**_A few months later_**

The four friends sat around the small wooden dining table, the blond male in particular was trying hard to ignore the harsh Ealdor heat.

"So, how did you two get together?" asked Freya, the shy but pretty girl who was currently dating Will.

Merlin smiled cheekily with a proud look adorning his face,

"Arthur wrote me a story."

Freya gasped, turning towards the intimidating blond that she had previously avoided speaking directly to.

"Wow, that's so-"

Will interrupted with a snort,

"Cheesy right? I mean, it's worse than writing someone a crap love song or a poem."

To the amusement of Merlin and Arthur, Freya turned bright red, before nudging her boyfriend,

"William! Don't be so mean."

Arthur laughed,

"It's fine, I don't mind what goes on in his thick skull, as long as wonder boy here likes it, I'm happy."

Merlin smiled,

"Loved it. You know, aside from the few grammatical errors I spotted."

Arthur grinned, pulling the raven-haired boy in for a kiss.

Will fake gagged in the background, "Excuse me while I slowly suffocate due to over-exposure of cheesiness"

Merlin broke apart from the kiss, much to Arthurs disapproval,

"Fine, we'll move."

Standing up, with incredibly devious grins on their faces, the pair moved into a nearby room before promptly shutting the door.

Will shuddered, "Gods, if you two are going to be staying in the same room tonight I'm sleeping outside."

Staring curiously after the two lovers, Freya turned towards her boyfriend,

"Love, isn't that your bedroom they walked in to?"

Realisation dawning on his face, Will raced towards his room, thumping on the door.

"You two better not be doing what I think you're doing. Bloody hell, I sleep in there! Guys! GUYS!?"

* * *

**Wheee, last chapter ;D Hope you guys like it. Forgive me though, I'm not the best at writing dramatic/angst/love scenes. Thank you guys for reading, sticking around and reviewing ^-^ I would be brilliant if you guys reviewed one last time to let me know what you think**

**l**  
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